The MeidasTouch Podcast - Kushner’s $2B in Saudi Blood Money Exposed + Former Lt. General SHREDS Pro-Putin GOP (Lt. General Ret. Ben Hodges)

Episode Date: April 12, 2022

On today’s episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, we sit down with Former US Army Commander in Europe & Pershing Chair of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), Lt. General (Ret.) Ben Hodges! During the interview, Hodges discusses why the next two-weeks are so crucial in Russia’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine, what the United States must do in order to provide additional help & his thoughts on the modern day republican party cozying up to Putin. In this action-packed episode, we bring you the latest breaking news of the week: Jared Kushner taking $2 billion in Saudi money, the Texas woman charged with murder for taking abortion medication, disgraced former President Trump endorsing Dr. Oz in the PA Senate Race and MUCH more! If you enjoyed today’s episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast please be sure to rate, review and subscribe! As always, thank YOU for listening! DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS: Buck Mason: https://buckmason.com/meidas BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/meidas Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 Zoomed In: https://pod.link/1580828633 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Jared Kushner becomes an investment manager and gets $2 billion from the Saudi Arabian Sovereign Wealth Fund. And here's what's hidden in that headline. Steve Mnuchin gets $1 billion. I was going to say that too. That was hidden. No one's talking about Mnuchin. No one's talking about Mnuchin got $1 billion. Hold on, let me finish the headlines. Texas charges Lizelle Herrera for taking abortion medication. They charge her with murder. The charges are then dropped. Donald Trump endorses Dr. Oz and it drives the GOP crazier.

And we have the former commanding general of the United States Army in Europe, Ben Hodges, will be joining the podcast. And when I think, Brett, of that Trump endorsement of Dr. Oz, and as we talk about some of these other GOP Senate candidates and political candidates, can I just think of the Wizard of Oz quote when v talks to the scarecrow and goes how do you talk if you don't have a brain well some people without a brain do an awful lot of talking don't they says the scarecrow this is the Midas Touch podcast Ben Brett and Jordy joining you today how you guys doing how does your brain work how does that how does the connections you make, I love it though. That is unbelievable. How does my brain work? I talked about Dr. Oz. Wizard of Oz. Wizard of Oz.

Brainless people. You know what? Ben's brain is Q-nata Jason. He's like the Charlie Day, like making the connections on the board. Pepe Sylvia, Pepe Sylvia, Pepe Sylvia. I mean, I think Dr. Oz, Wizard of Oz is an easy one. And we have an incredible, incredible guest. I mean, we have the former army commander in Europe who's going to be talking with us about the current status of Ukraine. I mean, who's booking these guests? I don't know. This is your opportunity to take credit, Jody. I don't know. No, we don't take credit. We don't take credit here. It's a team effort here at Minus Touch. Well, let's get into it right away. I mean, let's talk about this Jared Kushner $2 billion investment fund that he has. Who knew

that he was such an investor? Well, first off, let's break it down for people what this $2 billion is. This isn't like Saudi Arabia gave Jared Kushner $2 billion, They gave his fund $2 billion. It's the most ridiculous thing in the world. Jared Kushner is not an investment manager. He did real estate, I suppose, from his daddy's money before he got into the White House. He's a trust fund kid with no real qualifications. His dad bought his way into Harvard. I think they put money into a library. But Kushner never had qualifications for anything. Everything he touched kind of turned to the opposite of gold. He was the mierdest touch as well with Trump. But he fits right in. But it's funny, his fund is called Affinity. Just when you look, A-F-F-I-N-I-T-Y

is the fund that he's created. If you look up the definition of affinity, one of it is a relationship, especially by marriage, as opposed to blood ties. So it is a funny definition for affinity. Ben's doing a deep dive today on definitions and cultural references. So anyway, the sovereign fund of Saudi Arabia, which is basically the slush fund that Mohammed bin Salman has, MBS has, they put $2 billion into affinity. Now, as the investment manager, usually the fees that an investment manager gets is about 2% of the fund. It's possibly you get more than 2% of a fund, but usually 2% is the management fund, which that goes directly to Jared. And usually the way these funds work is that the fund manager,

the general partner, will then often get about 20%, sometimes more, sometimes less, but usually 20% of profits. And then what does the fund invest in? Well, the fund can have an investment thesis, but given that this fund hasn't existed before, the fact that a sovereign wealth fund is putting $2 billion into this fund, just to give you by reference, when funds start like this, usually someone who has no fund experience, they start off maybe with the $50 million fund or $100 million fund. This is someone with incredible banking experience though. Maybe they were a top banker at a major bank. They were managing billions of dollars, but they go out to the market and the market usually says to them, all right, we'll give you a hundred million to start. Accumulating from

dozens of investors, not just one investor would never give a new person a hundred million dollars. So maybe they collect 5 million here, 2 million here. They put it together. It's their first fund. Can you show us that your fund works? And maybe the next fund is half a billion dollars. Maybe you work your way up like a billion dollar fund's a big deal the fact that this one sovereign wealth group that mbs is giving two billion dollars to kushner billion two and two billion and then what can they invest in anything like this could basically they could invest in you know truth social they could invest in, you know, truth social. They can invest in Trump endeavors. They can invest in anything, basically.

And the sovereign wealth fund advisors, the people who advise MBS, this was reported in the New York Times, said, what the hell are you doing? Jared Kushner has no experience whatsoever. You can't put this amount of money. One, the PR risks are too high because people are going to talk about the conflicts of interest and the fact that literally Jared Kushner was like your main ally in the White House and gave you all of these perks and basically colluded with you as a foreign government, number one. Number two, he doesn't know what he's doing. You're probably going to lose your money.

But look, what this is, can we say what it is? It's a quid pro quo. Jared Kushner and the Trump administration covered up for the murder by MBS of Khashoggi. Yeah, this isn't a quid pro quo. It's like, oh, they did me this small favor. I did them this small favor, so they're paying me back. I mean, Kushner had helped him, had defended MBS after the U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that he approved the 2018 killing and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi. And that's the Saudi columnist who wrote for The Washington Post, who was a resident of Virginia who had criticized the Saudi kingdom's rulers. That is what they're paying him back for here. The killing and dismemberment of a Washington Post journalist who dared speak out against the Saudi kingdom. That is so twisted and so fucked up. I just want to reiterate, you said that Kushner

himself as a manager of this fund would get 2% of the fund, like just himself, because that's like $40 million just right there off the top, which is insane. I mean, this is profiting off the office. This is corruption at the highest levels. And don't give me that Hunter Biden bullshit anymore when you have this going on. And Ben, I'm happy you called out in the beginning, something that I haven't seen really other people talking about. When I was reading the article before, I was like, how has nobody mentioned this? That Steve Mnuchin, former treasury secretary, former treasury secretary for Trump, also got money. Mnuchin, former Treasury Secretary, former Treasury Secretary for Trump, also got money. The one who held up the money with his wife?

The one who held up the money with the wife. Yeah. When they were doing the. They're all super villains. They really are. They really are. That picture, we'll pull it up now, is like one also like just the whatever. Anyway, and Mnuchin, also the guy who would take like the Air Force One, right?

He wouldn't take like Air Force One on like private vacations or something. But he got $1 billion, which is sort of being overlooked since Kushner got $2 billion, all for being in the pockets of the Saudis and the Saudi Arabia. And yes, this is the guy who a couple of years ago literally said, I've got Kushner in my pocket. He said, I got Jared Kushner in my pocket. Well, Brett, the relationship fades back to even 2017 when Kushner and the crown prince, they're on a first name texting basis. They're super informal with each other. It's been reported that the crown prince, he gave Jared Kushner two swords, just gifted him two swords worth $48,000 just because they're buddies. This relationship is weird and it dates back to, it's. Forty eight thousand dollars, Jordy. That's like pocket change. I know,

but I'm just talking to a billion. That's it. They got Kushner's got forty eight thousand in his pocket right now from for from MBS. We think about, though, you go back with like Watergate, you know, and how that was reported, you know, the Watergate scandal. It's like we just learned today, you know, or this over the weekend that MBS, who said that the president's son-in-law is in my pocket, who helped cover up the murder of a Washington Post journalist, invested two billion dollars into a fund that is run by Jared Kushner, who has no experience. Also, a billion dollars into a fund by Steve Mnuchin. So $3 billion just went into thank you to Trump administration officials. And you're right, Brett, the Steve Mnuchin part's not even talked about.

This is not just corruption. Could you imagine if this took place in any other administration? And it doesn't. It really doesn't. Which is why and it's never happened, which is why, though, the radical right wants to focus on trying to drag down people like Hunter and try to make these comparisons, which are not even close. Shut up with the Hunter stuff, because if the Hunter stuff bothers you even like a lot, this Jared Kushner thing that's admitted, that's open, that's obvious,

that's being, it's hard to even put it away. And Ben, I know you spoke about this on Legal AF. We don't have to do a deep dive on this, But speaking about what's being highlighted by the media, of course, we found out last week the text from Don Jr. on November 5th stating his intentions to overthrow the results of the election before they even knew the results of the election, him texting with the chief of staff, Mark Meadows. That should be one of the biggest scandals ever that the president's son was saying, we control everything. We are able to overturn these results. And where did the New York Times have that article in their paper? They had it on page A15, 15 below the fold in a tiny little corner that read text from Trump's son is said to plan on overturning the election. That's where they had that.

That should be front page news. That should be the biggest story of a generation. It's like the media has lost all sense of what is important. And the weird thing is they're the ones writing these stories. Like, I commend the journalists for writing those stories. And I know a lot of people have issues with Maggie Haberman, but she wrote this story. And it's a very important story. And she's one of their top journalists. So why are they not putting that on the front page? Why are they

burying it on A15? It's just so absurd to me. I think honestly, it comes down to the psychology of it all, where it's like they do, the Trump administration does all their criminality and their criminal activity in the open. They're not hiding anything. Not that other people are hiding things, but because it's so open and in your face, people might not assume that it's a crime, even though it should be the biggest story of the year. But here's where I would disagree with you there, Jordy. This is actually one example of where it was being hidden. I love you to death. I love you. I love you. Never literally the example of the contradict you where they were hiding it. The January 6th

committee had to get it from the text messages. So your theory is not really accurate, but I get your point. But that should be a front page story. You know, even the fact that Trump's taking documents from, you know, classified documents and he's bringing him to Mar-a-Lago or that a federal federal judge ruled it's more likely than not that Donald Trump broke the law and engaged in obstruction. Like every day there's another story that drops. We cover it at the top of our podcast. We cover it throughout the day on Midas Touch.

But what CNN does focus on is, oh, Marjorie Taylor Greene, when she was going like this with her hands, that was actually those claps constitute an applause. Those claps were applause. Let's ignore the fact that she's out there saying that Zelensky should be overthrown 30 minutes later. Let's focus on whether her touching palms constituted applause versus claps. And let's try to fact check to Midas touch. But I mean, the media has lost their damn mind. And I still saw them talking about Will Smith yesterday when all this was going on. I'm like, you're really still doing a tape piece on Will Smith two weeks later. People need the news is there's a reason it's called like the fourth

estate, like it is necessary and needed for a functioning democracy. And the media has completely lost their mind. And Brett, this article highlights it. This is this is where The New York Times is treating this story. It's unbelievable. And what the Jared Kushner story, they maybe talk about it for a day and then they won't talk about it anymore. Like, OK, cool, cool. Here you go, Jared. You get 40 million dollars from a foreign government that you helped overthrow, cover up a murder of an American journalist. Remember the Ginny Thomas story? Old news. Let's all forget about it. Let's not even talk about Ginny Thomas, the wife of a Supreme Court justice trying to

overthrow the United States government. Who cares? Big deal. Move on. Move on. No big deal. And as people talk about the January 6th committee now, though, you know, even the way the story is being reported is really missing the point of what about what January 6th committee is thinking about doing. And it just leaves people very confused. The January 6th committee has the evidence, obviously. And it's you know, this has come out. We know we know whatth committee has the evidence, obviously, and it's, you know, this has come out. We know what a lot of the evidence is. We know that a federal judge, federal judge, has said that Donald Trump likely, more likely than not, engaged in obstruction of

Congress and engaged in criminal activity in connection with the insurrection. The federal judge called it a coup in search of a legal theory. The question now before the January 6th committee, though, is in making a criminal referral. All a criminal referral is, is a letter. Because the oversight functions of Congress, they are not a criminal prosecutorial body. All they can do is make the referral. So as you've seen before, they made a referral for contempt of Congress, of Steve Bannon, and the DOJ acted on that referral. But there was a finding of contempt. They also made referrals with Mark Meadows and Scavino and, you know, and a few others. The DOJ has not yet acted on those referrals. And one of the reasons they haven't is that at least someone like a Mark Meadows, who was the chief of staff for Trump, worked in the executive branch of government, that there's at least a argument to be made of executive privilege, whether or not that's a valid one and probably is not a valid one because criminality is not protected and the scope of the conduct relating to the insurrection has nothing to do with presidential functions. The DOJ made

a decision, hey, at least at this point, let's take Bannon down first. Let's prosecute Bannon. And then we could focus on next on these broader issues of executive privilege. So all a criminal referral means is after the January 6th committee makes its findings, no matter what, it's going to make its findings. And its findings will likely find that Trump engaged in criminal conduct. And they are going to lay those out one by one by one. The question is, is that just sent as a letter that says to the DOJ, do you prosecute it? The one thinking why you maybe don't do that is because the DOJ can prosecute him either way. And all that could happen by sending a letter to the DOJ is it gives another possible defense to Trump saying that it's a politicization of

the process and that the DOJ is politicizing it because it was referred by the January 6th committee. The DOJ, whether or not it gets a referral, is going to make its decision independent to prosecute or not prosecute. So that's just the issue right there. And so the January 6th committee, though, will make its findings, though, that the DOJ can absolutely act on. Just the January 6th committee is not a prosecuting body. It's not what Congress does. And it's a bipartisan committee. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's one of the underlooked facts. The committee, for all intents and purposes, is run by Republicans. It's run by Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, which I don't think is spoken about enough. I feel a few different

ways about this. I mean, we've said from the very beginning, we've told people, remember, this is a fact-finding committee. This is not a prosecutorial committee. Everybody is like, why aren't they arresting people? Why aren't they holding people against? That's not what they do. We've said that from the beginning. And if you think that that's what they do, then you've been misled by somebody.

That's not what they do. Now, the reason I say I feel a couple different ways about this is because, A, I don't care if they make the referral or don't make the referral. I want the best chance of conviction, period. End of story. I don't want that to be muddied in any way, form or fashion. Now, as far as the politicization of it all, I really don't buy that argument. Now, I don't think they need to make the referral. I don't think it's important for DOJ because DOJ is going to act regardless of what's going to happen. I just want to see justice. But I don't buy that argument just because

they are going to say that it's politicized regardless, no matter what they are going to say that it's politicized. If they don't make the referral, then Trump will say, see the DOJ, you're prosecuting me. Even the January 6th committee didn't refer me to you. So they would just make that argument. So my overall thing is let's stop in all aspects. Let's stop worrying about what Trump may or may not do, what Republicans may or may not do, and do whatever you think is the right thing instead for the rule of law. Stop worrying about how they are going to take it because you've already seen they will take whatever you do and turn it and flip it to their political benefit. So you just need to follow the rule of the law. And if the best way to get a good outcome of all this is not to refer, then don't refer. But if the only reason that you're not going to refer is because you are

scared of them using it against you in some political way, then I don't think you should take I don't think you should be doing that. I don't think you should be worried about that. It's the same reason why if you need to take if you need to subpoena somebody and you're worried about if Republicans take control of the House or the Senate, that they are going to start subpoenaing you and weaponizing the government. Don't be afraid of what they are going to do. They are going to do what they're going to do regardless. This is your moment to act. This is your moment for action. And now, like I said, either way, I don't care. Here's what I want from the January 6th committee. I want them to deliver us the undeniable facts of what happened that day, what proceeded that day, and what happened in the aftermath of that day. I want them to find out the links of the conspiracy to Donald Trump and how he orchestrated this coup attempt. And then I want to see them put on a show with public hearings.

I want to see fireworks. I want to see primetime hearings that just shock people in the detail of what everybody did. And then I want to see the DOJ prosecute, DOJ indict, DOJ prosecute. All that could happen without the referral. So as long as those things happen, I am happy. And I think all those things happening is important to the future of securing our democracy. I think the DOJ needs to act if America is to survive as a democracy. They need to indict everybody, including Donald Trump. On our Legal AF podcast this past weekend, we talked about, I agree with you, Brett. I dropped the Brett. That's a Brett rant and a half. No doubt. What we talked about, though, for all the people saying Merrick Garland needs to move

quicker, he needs to move quicker, I explained, I said, well, what just happened last week? Last week, we learned about Don Jr.'s text messages where he laid out the insurrection plan two days after the election. So I said, based on the theory of people saying Merrick Garland should have moved quicker. So you would have wanted a prosecution of Trump without that document before that document emerges? Like, is that what you have wanted? As I explained, you don't just get to take the, you know, you shouldn't just take the

bar exam without taking like law school classes. And anything that you do in life, you don't go to the last stage before doing the first stages. Like, like you have to do the things that to get to the last stage. And that's what Merrick Garland is doing, you know, whether he ultimately does prosecute Trump or not. And my hope is that he does and that all insurrectionists to the very highest levels need to be held accountable. But he's going through, Merrick Garland's going through the process that you would go through if that is the end. That I can guarantee you. That is the way justice looks. I'll tell you the way justice doesn't look, though. And I keep telling people, look, this is the critical issue, one of our time,

because one of the most critical issues of our time, probably the most critical issue of our time, because it is what is right. It is what is it is horrible what's happening and people need to pay attention to it. And it's also going to be very important in what you do in 2022 and where our national and local elections go, because what the right radical right wing wants to do, which unfortunately is the right wing right now, is they want to ban contraception. They want to ban all abortions and they want to lock women and childbearing persons up and frankly, families up for contraception, but particularly women is that's their focus. And they kind of jumped the gun in Texas because the Texas law SB8, the bounty hunter law that we've spoken about, where there's civil fines and civil liability

for anyone who has an abortion, for those who aid in a, you know, in a bet abortion. The law also has a trigger that if Roe v. Wade is overturned, then abortions will be deemed illegal kind of immediately in Texas. And we know that there's a case before the Supreme Court. Oral arguments were held several months ago, end of December, in Dobbs versus Mississippi is the case where Mississippi had a 15-week ban on abortion, which would be in violation of Roe v. Wade. And based on the oral arguments, at the very least, it appears the 15 week ban will be upheld. But it seems more directly that Roe v. Wade will probably be overturned. And in the questioning of Ketanji Brown Jackson, senators like Marsha Blackburn

and others challenged the initial case of which Roe v. Wade is premised on and said that case was unconstitutional, which said that the right of contraception is something that should be for the privacy of families and individuals and that the right to contraception should be, you know, should be banned. We have lots of Trump endorsed candidates who are running around the country right now, like the candidate in Alaska. Her name is Kelly Chispaka. And when she was speaking in Alaska, too, she was asked, will we ban and criminalize contraception being sent in the mail? And she said, yes, absolutely. We need to criminalize contraception in the mail. And so what happened in Texas is Lizelle Herrera, 26 year old, we don't have all of the facts, but took abortion medication, which induces an abortion, which is of course legal. The hospital that she went to for abortion related care, apparently in violation of HIPAA, reported her medical information to the police and called upon the police to arrest her.

The police arrested her. She was then charged with murder. She was held on a 500,000 bond in Starr County Jail in Rio Grande City for, quote, causing the death of an individual by self-induced abortion. And that's where it stood going into the weekend. Then in this weekend, the district attorney, I believe the name is District Attorney Ramirez, said in a statement, it's clear that Ms. Herrera cannot and should not be prosecuted for the allegations against her. Although with this dismissal, Ms. Herrera will not face prosecution. It's clear to me that the events leading up to this indictment have taken a toll on her. And he says in the statements that it's not a criminal act in the state of Texas, and that's not where

the law is. How did it even get that far where they're locking her up for, even if they're going by that SB8 law, which is a civil violation? How does it even get to a point where you're locking somebody up for this and charging them with murder? As I said, it's leading into it. They jumped the gun. But this is the point that I think everyone needs to take from this story. Although the ending of the story is that the district attorney Ramirez stepped in, did the right thing. One, the pain and suffering that Lizelle Herrera will have for the rest of her life and the trauma that she faces is unimaginable. So while she's not being

prosecuted for her, it's not like this is a great day. This has been one of the most horrific things that could ever happen to you. But here's the thing. What happened to Lizelle Herrera is something that's going to happen across the country soon. And that's what's going to be allowed to take place. We are going to see Lizelle Herrera type prosecutions across the country. I believe after the Dobbs versus Mississippi ruling happens in the next 60 days or so, they will start arresting people and charging them with murder and sentencing them to life in prison, we were told, oh, you're being hyperbolic. That's never going to happen in the United States. And the ad was a mother taking her daughter across state lines

to get an abortion in another state where it's legal. And the cop pulls the daughter out and arrests her. And we say in the ad, this is what's going to happen to people. Oh, that's not going to happen. That's not going to happen. It is going to happen. It is going to happen. And it's not going to stop there.

They're going to throw your daughters, your sisters, mothers, childbearing persons in jail for the rest of their life for seeking abortion-related healthcare. That is what they're going to do. And then they're not going to stop there. Then they're going to go to contraception. They're already doing that. That is what they want to do. That is what they've been fighting for. And so what are we going to do about it? Are we going to stay silent? Again, when we talk about the media priorities, the media is not even covering this issue. This is a front page issue every single day. I haven't seen it anywhere. I haven't seen it anywhere. I've seen it on Twitter. I've seen stuff about it, but it's not highlighted the way it

should be. Like it's not highlighted as like, like all these sorts of stories should be like, this is what is happening to this country. We are descending into an autocratic nation. This is what Donald Trump and his children and his advisors tried to do to overturn the results of our election and destroy our democracy. This is what is going to happen to women in the next few months, few years at this rate if Republicans are elected. But they're too afraid to offend Republicans. They're too afraid to offend Republicans when they are trying to criminalize contraception. So like Ben said, we have to act. And whenever you see any of these crazy Republicans, whenever you see any of these crazy policies, whenever you see stories like this, I don't want you to be paralyzed with fear. That's not why we're telling it to you. We're telling it to you

because you got to understand the true stakes that are out there and you need to be able to inform your friends and your family about the true stakes that are out there. I think even somebody who might even not be anti, someone who might be anti-abortion, I don't even think they want to see their friends, family members, everybody locked up, put in prison for life and want contraception off the shelves and contraception banned, made illegal. I mean, that's handmaid's tale style shit. Every time you see these stories, instead of freaking out and going, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? Go to vote.org, check your voter registration. Try to register five people. Try to register 10 people to vote. Get the word out because we need to shock everybody. We need to shock the establishment this November. We need to pull off a win and we need to keep these handmaid's tale style politicians away from our

bodies, away from women, away from everybody. And we need to move this country forward. And by the way, hat tip to everyone out there who was standing up using their Twitter accounts, using their social medias to throw outrage to Ms. Herrera's story, because it's absolutely ridiculous. I mean, the district attorney in this case acted fast. They acted quickly. But who knows if people didn't speak up how much longer Ms. Herrera would have been behind bars for or what happened last. Exactly. And Brett, you say that the media is afraid to offend the Republicans. Whoever these people are in power right now who call themselves Republicans, they're not.

This is not a Republican party. These are radical right extremists who use the label Republican, who use the label conservative. These people are not conservative. They have no interest in a republic. They're not Republican. These people want to create that Putin-style autocracy here in the United States, and we need to talk about it each and every day. And we'll talk about some more of these Senate races at the end of the pod. But before that, let's bring in our guest, Ben Hodges, the former commanding general of the United States Army in Europe and the person chair for the Center for European Policy and

Analysis. But before bringing in Ben Hodges, let's talk about some of our partners. Brett. Let me tell you about Buck Mason. We all got- You scared the crap out of me, Jordy. We all got our favorite go-tos, right? And I guess Jordy's favorite is Buck Mason, mine too. We got shirts, sweaters, jeans, the stuff you wear all the time. While I was getting dressed this morning, I realized that all of my go-tos are from Buck Mason. And guess what? Even though the copy says I realized this morning, I did not realize just this morning. I've been knowing this for months, if not years, because I've been shopping at Buck Mason since at least 2015, 2016, because Buck Mason's clothes are second to none. They're timeless. They never go out of style.

Everything I own fits great right out of the box and becomes my new favorite right away. Buck Mason makes all the essential shirts, jeans, jackets, all my go-tos and much more. I love the tailored look and fit of their t-shirts. Even after wearing them and putting them through wash after wash, they look just as good as when I first wore them. The curved hem tee is one of my favorites. It's what I'm wearing right now. Actually, I'm rocking the gray curved hem T GQ loves it as much as I do calling it the best t-shirt in the game. Like I said, I've been going to Buck Mason for almost a decade now. I really just love it. I love the fit of the clothes right now. I'm also rocking the sweatpants. You

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Only the smartest son in every family is named Ben. Oh, no. I see how this interview is already starting up. We're already playing favorites. I see what's happening here. I got the back of the commanding general of U.S. Army Europe there, Brett. So I think that that is I'm going to lay down. I'm going to stand down. I'm standing down. Stand down, Brett and Jordy. So getting right into it, you know, you've been very outspoken recently about the importance of the next two weeks in the war, the unlawful invasion of Ukraine by Russia. And you said that these next two weeks are the most decisive. And we hear that a lot. You know, these days are the most decisive. That days are the most. Why, though, are these two weeks coming up the most decisive

in this war? Thanks, you guys, for giving me the opportunity here, by the way. I believe that the next two weeks are decisive because depending on what happens, what we do or don't do, that's we, the United States, we, the West, determines whether or not this is going to be a long, drawn-out, bloody stalemate that goes on for years? Or do we take advantage of Russia's temporary vulnerability and break their back? That's what I mean. And if we do that, then there's a chance for Ukraine to be in a much better position to start negotiations, where at a minimum, Russia is back to the pre-24 February line. The two weeks is not scientific, but it's based on my assessment of how much more ammunition Ukraine has to continue to hit important targets of Russian targets, and how long it's going to take Russia to get back up on their feet, because they're going

through this what we call reconstitution. They're trying to rebuild all their battered units, solve their problems. And so there's about a two week window. So it's almost like a race, if you will. And here's the race, right? The reconstitution is Russia. They're trying to rebuild their forces. They're bringing in this new general also from Syria. But they're out there, you know, the convoys just basically hanging out there. And people are saying, well, why isn't Ukraine just attacking the convoys that are exposed right now? And it's pretty much a mathematic equation in a way. Look, they just don't have the ammunition to knock the convoys. Right. So a lot of it really is, is that the ammunitions need to be brought

to Ukraine right now to get those convoys that are exposed. That's exactly what it is. The Ukrainians do not have the ability to reach out and light these convoys on fire. What they need is long range rockets and artillery. They need air delivered systems to be able to hit this. And this has been my frustration that the United States, as much as we have provided, along with other allies, you don't get the sense of urgency that we want to win. And that's I mean, we the collective we the U.S. not just keep Ukraine in the fight, but us win, which means smashing the Russians while they are trying to reconstitute. And we are just not providing the stuff that they need to help them reach out and touch Russian ships that are launching missiles into cities. You know, the fiasco of not letting the Polish MiGs be transferred to the Ukrainians. I mean, just imagine if they had 10 or 12 more aircraft in the sky right now, that convoy, first of all, they wouldn't even dare

to be out in daylight like that. But it's obvious that the Russians do not fear being attacked from the air. That's a problem. So why is it, though, that, you know, the collective we, the United States, the West doesn't provide those basic steps? And what I hear is, well, if you do this or that, it may be provocative. Well, I'll tell you what's provocative. I mean, provocative is what happened in Bucha. I mean, that's provocative, you know, a genocide of people there. What's provocative is what Putin wants to do in Donbass. Provocative is getting general, the general, the butcher of Syria. They're all butchers, but getting that butcher to come in to basically do a genocide. So why is there this like delicate statecraft on the one hand, if you want to even call it that, from the West, knowing that history repeats itself, knowing the issues of appeasement for people like Putin and his ilk?

Why isn't it a simple lesson? All right, just just just give him the planes, just give him the munitions. Well, the failure of the United States and others to recognize who we're dealing with goes back decades. I mean, this is not a recent phenomenon. The previous administration was terrible. The administration before that was terrible when it comes to dealing with Russia and thinking that somehow we could deal with them like another normal country. And they're not. And this country, you know, they murdered 22,000 Polish officers at the beginning of World War II in an attempt to get rid of the elites that might help a new Polish state stand up. They enabled Republika Srpska, which murdered 8,000 Bosnian men and boys while European troops under a UN mandate stood by. And so we should not be surprised. And they used

poison on their own opposition. So we should not be surprised that they are using medieval approach now to smash cities. But for some reason, in Washington, but also in Berlin and London and other capitals, there is a belief that, oh, you know, if we let them have 25-year-old MiGs, jets, that that will equal escalation to World War III, which I think is just a significant exaggeration of the threat. Now, look, there's no pressure on me. I'm an old retired guy. The president has the pressure, literally the weight of the world on his shoulders. And so he has to be careful. I just think that the president and those around him and in many other capitals have exaggerated the threat, the risk of a World War III, whatever that means. It conjures up images of, you know, Dr. Strangelove and the whole world being blown apart by nuclear weapons. That's not going to happen. In fact, I don't think

the Russians are going to use any nuclear weapons. Their nukes are only effective as long as they don't use them. And especially, I think you juxtapose that, you know, Dr. Strangelove image of Russia and then really the emperors without clothes image that we've now seen, I think, you know, from Russia saying that they have a million troops, which was grossly over-exaggerated. It feels like it's probably more like half a million and that's not even operational, you know, style people. You know, it seems that all of the hype behind what the Russian military was, one of the big things that were exposed is that, you know, that's a military force that really is disorganized.

It's a military force that has all of the problems that exist in dictatorial fascist countries where the generals are not giving the leader accurate information. And that's what's been exposed, if anything, like why not just take the decisive shot now and just get rid of them? What has been exposed also, and I would agree with all that you've said, is decades of corruption inside the Ministry of Defense and inside the general staff and inside the entire Russian government. Shoigu, the Minister of Defense, has been there for at least eight years. I mean, he's Putin's guy. He's the Minister of Defense. All these people there, they've been there for years.

And Putin, I mean, KGB guy, he's been the leader for 20 years. He knows about the corruption that's out there. That's part of how he keeps people loyal to him is allowing, tolerating, encouraging corruption. So the corruption should not be a surprise to him or anybody else. The result of that corruption is exactly what you said. And I'm glad you mentioned the troop numbers. 900,000, I doubt it. Probably closer to 500,000, I doubt it. Probably closer to 500,000. This is an old tactic for corruption in militaries where you say, I have X number of people on payroll, so I get the money to pay them.

But you actually only have half that many. That's a good way to make a lot of money if you're in the ministry or in the general staff. And then when you think about troops that have got equipment, as much money as they spend on modernization, they've got tires that are not performing that they bought from the Chinese. They've got soldiers with rations that are expired. I mean, they were getting they've been planning this operation for months and you hand your soldiers rations that are already years past their shelf life. I mean, these are all red flags of corruption inside the ministry. What about the red flags of corruption here domestically, though? I mean, what goes through your mind? I mean, did you ever think there'd be a time period where you see kind of politicians who call themselves, who cloak themselves in the words conservative,

but seem to be obsequious to Putin. Like what goes through your mind with all of the years you've dedicated in the military, outside the military to see stuff like that happen here from high level politicians, again, who call themselves conservative. Never in my life did I imagine that the party of Reagan would also embrace Vladimir Putin in any way or give one second of credibility to a claim that, well, these murders in Bucha, this might be staged. We're not sure. I mean, just that part was is unfathomable to me. But also that we we do have a problem inside our own country with people not being informed. I mean, either choosing to remain ignorant or choosing to listen to only one far left or far right, whatever it is, and not being engaged. We've made ourselves vulnerable to Russian disinformation, where people lose trust in our election

system, in our court system. So this is the responsibility of our leaders, as well as parents, to make sure that we protect those institutions. That doesn't mean everything's always sunny and flowery and that we always get along, but that the institutions themselves are not questioned. That's been one of the hardest things to watch the last few years. And I think one of the institutions is the media, which you were just hinting at, that people are so siloed in their media networks that they watch. There are some, though, that are just so, every media network has some sort of slant, but it seems like there are some now that are just so devoid of the truth entirely and are just purely propaganda. And, you know, I'm talking about Fox News and OAN and Newsmax here that have

taken in many stances a pro-Putin agenda. I mean, what do you think, what kind of responsibility do those social networks have right now in this kind of time of war? I'm obviously so old that I was around long before internet and social media or that sort of thing. But I still remember my seventh grade teacher, Mrs. McKendry, telling me, he said, look, Ben, you got to have more than one source for your news. You can't read just one newspaper or one magazine or watch one channel. It's your duty to be informed, to inform yourself. And so I was, that was how I was raised. And I think that being a good citizen means more than just voting and paying taxes. It means being responsible and being involved

to the extent that's possible, given your family situation, your job, etc., etc. It really boils down to our elected officials also to set an example. Look, when President Trump would point to the bank of all the journalists and say, it's all fake news. I mean, I thought that was a violation of his constitutional duty to protect, you know, the Constitution, which includes freedom of the press. And so, I mean, it's one thing to call out a journalist and say, hey, man, I read your last story. That was total BS. You know, you had it all wrong. That's one thing. But to point to all of them and say it's all fake, that undermines confidence that people have in the very important pillar of our democracy, which is a free media that is annoying as hell, that can be very irritating, but nonetheless, it is an essential part of it.

I was wondering your thoughts as a former commanding general watching the events of January 6th, and what do you make of all that we've seen since then from the kind of immediate reactions after of leadership saying this was a horrible event to almost a week later, or in some cases, days later, starting to defend it and putting out fake news quite literally of what actually happened that day. And now the people who have doubled and tripled down that January 6th was actually a peaceful protest. And using that as an example that that was patriotism that day and not an insurrection against the United States government. I had some dear friends that have commented on that as like,

well, you know, we don't know the name of the person who shot the one that was trying to get inside. I mean, questioning whether or not were these really Antifa people in there that blended in. And I don't know how you could question what you're looking at when it's happening right in front of you. And when it's so obvious what's happening when they're hammering the shit out of, I'm sorry, when they're assaulting policemen, somebody walking through our Capitol with a rebel flag, these kinds of things, how could anybody want to be associated with that? And also it was disappointing to see that there were quite a few either retired military or former military or some in the reserves that were joined in this. Because, you know, we take an oath to the Constitution of the United States over and

over and over to reinforce the notion of the Constitution. And so to see somebody doing that that had any military background was very concerning. I don't even want to think about what would have happened if they had managed to get their hands on the vice president or members of Congress. Because, you know, a mob, once it starts, I mean, it can very quickly get out of control. The reaction of people since then who have backtracked on what they said at the moment also, that does not build confidence of people in their elected officials. Now, the good news is that the January 6th commission is doing this job. And I'm not a lawyer, but as I've watched what they've done, the way they have done this is very clever. I mean, it's like each day there's a little drip

that comes out. And also they've used the approach, you get all the low hanging fruit first so that the people who are the ultimate target start wondering what all will they have said and provided so that when it does get down to the final tier of targets, if you will, what do they have? And I think, honestly, for the good of our republic and also for our image, I live in Frankfurt, Germany, and I have people all the time saying, what in the heck is going on? I mean, most professional Europeans either went to school in the States, they have friends there, they have business there, they send their kids there. And while they may criticize U.S. policy, the expectation of America as an icon of trying to get democracy right was something that they always admired. And so they're, they're dismayed now by what, by what happened on January the 6th, as am I. And what do you think justice looks like for the good

of the country? Well, I think that every single person that was directly involved or indirectly involved in what happened on January 6th is charged, convicted, and gets the right sentence, whatever that is, and that people that have tried to hide behind some misdirection or felt that they were above this, they should be studied for years and years and years as examples of what can go wrong when the voters, when the voters are not active in our democracy. I mean, this this is about democracy, which is which is not easy. It's not a ballet. I mean, it's hard. We had a massive civil war in our own country. But, you know, at the end of the day, I always I always trust in the American people. We just, we seem to have a hard time getting there sometimes.

Yeah. Well, democracy is hard, as you said. And that's the, I guess, the lore of autocracy is that it's easy. You have one person who could just unilaterally say what it is and that's what it is. Switching subjects for a second, we're seeing a small amount of military members challenging these vaccine mandates, refusing to take it, challenging being separated and discharged, actually wanting to be deployed without vaccines. I mean, to me as an outsider, military has taken vaccines forever, like going back to George Washington. Is this one of the strangest things that you have seen? What is your take on all this? And also these judges challenging President Biden as the commander in chief, challenging his authority to mandate vaccines in the military. I was astounded the first time I heard that it was not mandatory to get vaccinated back over a year ago. I mean, I couldn't believe that was even a choice. The only choice I've ever had in 38 years in the army was left arm or right arm. I mean, not whether or not I was going to get vaccinated. And I never questioned

it. You know, it was never like, gee, I wonder if the doctor knows more than I do about, you know, what I need to go into Iraq or Afghanistan or Panama or wherever it was I was going. So I just was astounded. I can't imagine how could you, if the purpose of the military is to be ready to fight and win a nation's wars, that means you have to be ready to go on very short notice. And so readiness is always the top priority. Well, how can you put four soldiers inside of a tank or, you know, three or four aviators inside a Chinook or whatever the complement of a submarine is, 100 or 150 sailors inside a submarine and have three or four of them walking around like, hey, man, you know, I didn't have to do that. That kills readiness and it also undermines trust. So if a soldier or a sailor or airman says, I'm not doing it, we have ways to separate people just like somebody else that refuses an order. And then lastly, going back to

Russia's unlawful invasion in Ukraine, how does it end for Putin? You have President Biden on record saying this guy can't remain in power. Now, the administration tried to walk that back, and then he walked back the walk back. How do you think it ends for Putin? Well, badly, it's going to end bad. He's never going to be welcome or invited anywhere again, except, you know, maybe North Korea or, you know, someplace like that. I mean, it's just I can't even imagine him or Lavrov or any of these other characters being welcomed back into polite society in Europe or the United States or most other places. If he's lucky, he gets to live to old age somewhere.

I don't think he's going to be that lucky. I mean, Russia has a pretty violent history. And I was proud that the president said what he said. And, yeah, of course, people were wetting their pants when he said that. But you know, when President Reagan said, called Russia the evil empire, called the Soviet Union the evil empire, there were diplomats around him and Europeans that almost fainted. No, you can't talk like that. But it's exactly kind of the unifying force concept. And so I think for our president to say what that guy's doing, he does not deserve to be the leader of a country.

He cannot remain in power. And he's a war criminal. And, yeah, maybe that was not 100 percent elegant in terms of a legal construct. But if you're the president of the United States, what you say matters. And it helps shape actions and thought. And I'm glad he said it. And how about that? You know, about two or three days later, it comes out and everybody's like, God, dang, what a war criminal is Putin. How is he even walking around? Now, we are seeing and hearing a lot more in the last few days about the Russian population. Clearly, they're not a bunch of adults that have no idea what's going on. I mean, I would say at least half of their population is completely hooked on state-run media,

but the other half is not. But yet, there still is a lot of support inside Russia for what's going on. They have bought into this notion. And so this is not just a crazy guy. He's got a lot of support. And so we've got our work cut out from a long-term standpoint to reach the Russian population. They have suffered as much from Putin's regime as most of their neighbors. I mean, life sucks inside Russia. If you're not in downtown Moscow or St. Petersburg, it's not very good. Let me just say this, Ben. One of the things we've been lucky here to have is a really, really, really big audience. And sometimes I find on these interview style shows, the interviewers drive these things, but I have the commanding

former commanding general for the U S army in Europe on. And sometimes I just need to shut up and listen, you know, and, and, and hear just what your, you know, what your thoughts are, what's going on. I'm sure you go on all of these shows and there's just some questions that you don't get asked. There's just something that you've really wanted to convey to a large audience and say, could you stop asking me this? Just let me speak for a second. So if someone were to frame the question the way I just did to you, like what's the overall message that you have, you know,

to the United States right now, or even to the world, to a big audience. So Brett and Jordy were wrong. You really are smart. I mean, that, that was a very well. Look, what is so frustrating when I hear people say, why do we care? I mean, why why do we need to worry about Ukraine? And so much of the debate about Ukraine over the past several years has been as if it's an island, but it's not an island. The reason we care about Ukraine is not only because of its amazing history and culture and people, but it's because of where it sits on the map. The Black Sea region is an area that's not very well known to most of us, honestly, until a few

years ago. I didn't fully understand the significance of it. But when you can step back from the map and think about the Black Sea, we have three NATO allies there, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria. We have treaty obligations to help protect them. So that's one reason it's strategically important. Number two, the Black Sea region is our buffer against Iran. I mean, Iran is on the south side, southeast side of Turkey. So having the Black Sea that is stable, secure with allies and partners helps keep Iran further and further away. It's also the third reason it's important is because Russia needs it for everything it does in the Caucasus, which is Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, everything that Russia does in the Balkans, specifically helping out Serbia, but also

causing problems in other countries. And then they use it, the Black Sea is their launching pad for their support of the Assad regime, which used chemicals on its own people and put millions of refugees on the road into Europe, which seriously undermined the European civil society and politics for decades. So it's a place where we have to compete. And then finally, there's huge economic potential. The Black Sea region is the economic corridor between Europe and Eurasia. If we help develop Ukraine and Georgia and Romania, the prosperity of this region would be significant. The other two choices for East-West movement is to go through Russia or through Iran. So there's strategic reasons to be involved and for Ukraine to be successful. And then finally, of course, if Russia defeats

Ukraine, if they're able to crush Ukraine, then that's not the end of the day. I mean, they're going to keep going. They're going to go to Moldova. They're going to go after the rest of Georgia and they're going to be a threat. So this appeasement, if somehow we end up with a settlement that's less than what it should be, which means Russia back to the pre 24 February line, then they'll just wait a couple of years and we'll all be having the same conversation again. See, that was the best question of the podcast by me. What if that was the move, Brett, that I just have like the most qualified people like Ben Hodges, like join the podcast. And instead of just asking questions, I just go, Ben, the floor is yours. But in all seriousness, Ben, we really appreciate you. You set a great tone and,

you know, to listen to somebody ramble for 20 or 30 minutes is hard. But the way you guys do it, I appreciate the opportunity you gave me. Ben Hodges, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. We hope you'll come back and join us again. Thanks, guys. So great having someone as experienced as Ben Hodges walk us through what's going on in Ukraine. It's truly incredible. I mean, the fact that we're able to speak to a former commanding general of the US Army of all of Europe on the show. I mean, it's, it's truly it's awesome. It was so honored to have him on the show. Absolutely. So let's talk about Jordi. This is your home. This is your neck of the woods. This is Pennsylvania. Trump endorsed Dr. Oz in the Senate primary race in Pennsylvania. And he chose Dr. Oz over David McCormick. And David McCormick was the former himself as kind of a Glenn Youngkin type figure, former private equity, QAnon adjacent, but tries to portray himself as having business acumen. And look,

I mean, being the head of Bridgewater. By the way, Bridgewater, remember earlier in the pod when I talked about different funds? Bridgewater is like an example of like a fund that exists. Yeah. Not only a fund that exists, but I think they are the largest fund that exists. And he was the CEO of that. No, there's no, I mean, they have about, as of March, 2021, they had about $140 billion in assets under management, which is definitely a very large fund. 70 MBSs, right? 70 Kushners. Took me a second, but I got that. And David McCormick's, uh, wife, Dina Powell worked for Trump. She was a former counselor to the president. Dude, she was the deputy national security advisor in the Trump administration. So, so naturally MAGA world all thought that McCormick was going to be Trump's endorsement here. And I think McCormick also thought that he was going to be Trump's endorsement. And then Trump have them all show

up at like Mar-a-Lago too. And like, yeah, McCormick went to Mar-a-Lago like a few days ago to kiss the ring as like just in this weirdo thing that they all do. They fly down to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring of Trump and then they leave and then they pray that he endorses them. But two or three days later, what does Trump do? He endorses Dr. Oz, which sets Mago World ablaze, sets the right wing, drives them fucking crazy. Well, I want to go back and keep talking about McCormick for one second. But so the Oz endorsement is so bizarre because McCormick is a Pennsylvania guy. The one thing that I've absolutely learned about living here for the last two and a half years is that Pennsylvanians love Pennsylvanians. Now, McCormick did move to Connecticut to start his hedge fund. So it was a layup for Trump to endorse McCormick. I mean, it would have been very, very difficult for a Democratic candidate to win if McCormick got the Trump endorsement. Now, I'm not saying it's over by any means. You still have to get out there and vote, Pennsylvanians. But it is a shock. A shockwave hit Pennsylvania, all citizens across this great commonwealth, that he endorsed Oz,

a Hollywood elitist, over one of their own. People are furious about that. Yeah. But it's also like, it's so typical Trump. Like, of course he's going to endorse the celebrity guy. Who's like him. Who's like a fraud. Who's a quack who's, who's basically Trump, but for like doctors, like, like, of course he's going to do that guy instead when you look at it in retrospect, but the weird thing to not the weird thing, but the funny thing to me is how all these right wingers, they like are so close to getting it, but so far away when they start placing the blame about Trump on this. Like you have Mo Brooks out there who also famously

recently just got rejected by Trump. And he goes, this is happening because Trump surrounded himself by staff who are on McConnell's payroll and hostile to the MAGA agenda. Everybody telling Trump who to endorse in primaries works for the swamp. They played him again. You have right wing radio host Eric Erickson saying it's like Donald Trump's staff is sabotaging Trump by convincing him to make the worst possible endorsements. You have Breitbart News' Joel Pollack. This endorsement could divide MAGA in the only way that matters. He could lose America First conservatives over it. Roger Stone. Wait, President Trump endorsed this guy? It's like everybody seems to blame the people around Trump, but not Trump himself. It's always, oh, his advisors are advising him wrong,

but it's never like, oh, so you're saying that Trump is easily duped. You're saying that Trump is so easily duped by anybody in his ear, by the last person around him. That's your argument that you want to make about this guy who you adore so much, that he is so easily fooled and that he's just a moron. That's like your best argument for the guy. Oh, he's just an idiot. He's just listening to whoever was in his ear last. He's just a moron. I mean, if he did this on his own, he would never do this.

If you're a podcast listener listening in Pennsylvania, too, you know that the Oz commercials and the McCormick commercials are just batshit crazy. And why they're so crazy, too, is because they all kissed the ring to Donald Trump. Now, McCormick, his strategy is going to have to change. He's going to have to now not become the MAGA candidate that he's been portraying himself to be. So it's going to be interesting. And just a personal anecdote for me, my extended family here, they're not all Democrats. You know, everyone I speak to around here in Pennsylvania that I know, and they have told me already that they would rather vote for Fetterman, one of their own, than vote for Dr. Oz as quote unquote Hollywood elitist, because that's how McCormick has painted Oz in all of his campaign videos. I mean, this is truly, truly a miscalculation

from Donald Trump. And I just love to see it. Now it's not over. Get out there and vote Pennsylvania. And I'm going to do something that we don't typically do here. Fetterman is the guy that we need to win that Senate seat. There are a lot of great candidates. Fetterman, Braddock mayor for five years, zero homicides while he was mayor. The bridge collapsed here in Pennsylvania. He was the first guy on the scene wearing shorts. Why? Because he was going for a jog in the neighborhood. He's a neighborhood guy. Instead of going home and putting on a suit and being all politics glam in this, no, he went straight to the bridge collapse to see what was going and how he could help. He is Pennsylvania, thick and thin, through and through. He is our guy. Well, I'll just say, yeah, rooting for Fetterman, rooting for Conor Lamb, rooting for Malcolm Kenyatta. Whoever gets that nomination,

you know, I will back 150 percent. And I think this all in general, this is very good for Democrats, Trump's endorsement. And also, you know, you have the added benefit of Oz's. Honestly, he's he's a quack and he's a fraud, but he's the least crazy out of all those candidates also, which, you know, isn't the worst thing. Also, to acknowledge that at least the alternative is also not one of these total and complete psychopaths. I mean, he's still a fake and a fraud and should never be anywhere near government.

But- Well, I mean, you look at Georgia Brett with Herschel Walker running against- Oh my God. Senator Warnock. And you have Herschel Walker who repeatedly put a gun to his wife's head. And I mean, we can go into all the personal attacks,

which we will at a later time but like when he's asked the most basic of questions he literally just responds with gibberish yeah i mean i mean like just thinking about like getting answers uh getting questions and being prepared with answers like at the i genuinely don't think he knows what he's running for. Right. But Ben, ultimately, the sad part is you're right. He still has a four-point lead in the latest polls over Warnock. So that's why you have to, listeners, Georgia, you have to bring that 2020 energy to 2022 because Raphael Warnock needs that seat. You cannot let Herschel Walker get that seat. By all means, absolutely not. Warnock's been like the most inspiring,

like most incredible Senator of all time. Also like his speeches on voting rights. He's, he's really just such a fighter for Georgia. But honestly, when I look at this poll, I'm not, I don't like freak out that poll. It's still very early. I don't freak out when I look at these polls. It just shows us that we got work to do. And the second that people actually start hearing from Walker, I think these polls are going to shift pretty drastically once they hear that he really can't even speak a coherent sentence. Well, let's listen to Herschel Walker on the fake business channel. Tell us what changed in the last 14 months since Warnock won that seat. You know, what has changed is where do you start?

Where do you start at? What has changed is we've got an administration that they're not leaders. They're almost, they're more reactive rather than proactive, and what I mean by that is one of the first things they did, and I think people need to know this, is they decided

that they were going to give up all the energy. By him going out and giving up all the energy and now we're not energy independent anymore which started the whole downfall i don't even think he knows what he's what he's saying you know that's the issue i mean that and that's look the the choice is very clear it's no longer like a two-party system that has different ideas of how to better help America and how to help our democracy. You have one party right now in the Democrats, which is a bigger 10 party that supports democracy at its core, that supports the people and that, you know, he and supports American ideals here and abroad. On the other hand, you got people on the radical right who, it's really sad,

it's really pathetic. And it is our mission at Midas that we're going to keep highlighting this every single day. And we're going to win in 2022. When I say we are going to win in 2022, America is going to win in 2022. America is going to win in 2024. We're better than this. I know we're better than this. And when people get the truthful, accurate information they're not lied to, they know also. And so we just got to keep at it each and every day. Special thanks to our sponsors, Buck Mason and BetterHelp. Go check it out and use those promo codes, Midas. And special thanks to our guest, former commanding general of the U.S. Army in Europe, Ben Hodges, who serves now as the Pershing chair at the Center for European

Policy Analysis. We will see you next time on the Midas Touch Podcast. Shout out to the Midas Mighty!