The MeidasTouch Podcast - Massive Protests Take USA by Storm

Episode Date: April 7, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on the massive “Hands Off” protests across the United States and the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hey, hey, ho, ho. Americans are fed up. The hands-off protests on Saturday took the nation by storm. Thousands of protests in cities and towns, in states across the United States of America, and internationally as well. Millions of people in the aggregate were out there protesting in different cities. We saw hundreds of thousands of people, and these numbers are only going to grow as we head into democracy summer. Now, the Midas Touch Network was there broadcasting all of it.

We partnered with MoveOn and some of the other grassroots organizations who were leading the protests. What you saw at the beginning of this video was part of our coverage. That was from the New York protests. What I want to do on this video is highlight some of the protests that were taking place across the country and the world. I also want to share with you what our correspondent Aaron Parnas was seeing on the ground in Washington, D.C. as he was interviewing some of the top Democratic leaders for the Midas Touch Network. All right, let's take a look at Boston, where there were over 100,000 people protesting. I want to show you what that

scene looked like. Let's play it. Now I want to show you the massive, massive protest that was taking place in downtown Chicago as part of the Hands Off movement. Let's play the clip. Now, just so you see here as well, and credit to Marco Foster for putting a lot of these together and aggregating it from groups like Our Revolution. This is an aerial view of the massive protest taking place in New York City yesterday as part of the hands-off rally against Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Just look at how massive it actually was in size. Play this clip. And here is the massive crowd that continued to grow yesterday at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. for the hands-off rally against Musk and Trump. Let's play the clip. We had Midas Touch correspondent and TikTok superstar Aaron Parnas in Washington, D.C.,

embedded in the protests yesterday. Here's what he had to say earlier on as the numbers continued to grow. When he was there, it was 50,000, 100,000. I think the full count in D.C. is going to be significantly higher, but this was yesterday when Parnas was there. Let's play it. I am here right now at the massive anti-Trump, anti-Musk protest happening right behind me. We're at the National Monument. Look at this. Let me show you the scenes right now. Folks, it's only about 1115. There are several thousand people here. They're expecting a lot more.

And they're covering most of the National Monument, the Washington Monument, on National Mall. People go far, far back over there. Now, allegedly, we're expecting a number of speakers from Congressman Jamie Raskin, Congressman Maxwell Frost, and many more. So I'll see what I can cover. But right now, it's just several thousand people across the DMV area protesting Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Let me know if you want to see something specific. I'm happy to interview anyone. I'm happy to talk to anyone. So we'll see what happens. But I'm out here. If you're out here, let me know and follow along. I'll do a full breakdown on my sub stack like I always do on my

link in bio at the top of the link tree. So stay tuned. Parnas then had the opportunity to interview Democratic Congress member Jamie Raskin. Let me show you what went down. Let's play it. I'm here with Congressman Jamie Raskin from Maryland. Now, Congressman, why did you choose to come to this protest and why is it so impactful in this moment right now? Well, my congressional district is in Maryland and it borders Washington, D.C. So we have tens of thousands of people from Maryland who've come down here. So this is the one I did, even though I was in Florida, actually, with Maxwell Frost for the rest of the weekend.

So this demonstration across the country with more than a thousand different protests is going to further catalyze popular resistance and opposition to this deranged program that they're imposing on the country. Now, a lot of folks are concerned, right? A lot of people have told me that they're being fired, especially at the IRS right now. What's your message to those who have been terminated at the federal government? And how can they fight back? What can they do in this moment right now? Wait, I'm sorry, I missed it. Yeah, no worries. A lot of folks are worried.

They're being terminated right now at the federal government and they want to know what they can do. What's their future? So what's your message to them? We are winning in the courts. Like, for example, they fired tens of thousands of probationary employees, which was completely lawless. And so they've been restored theoretically to their jobs,

but they're not letting them go back to work. They are giving them pay, but they're not having them do their jobs, which is absurd. But we're going to fight for them to get their jobs back. And then we are going to make sure that people who've lost their jobs, who can't get their jobs back, are part of this movement against authoritarianism in the country. Congressman, thank you so much. Now, I just want to also go back and share with you the massive scope of that Boston event. Take a look right here, the aerial view of the massive protest in Boston yesterday. This was incredible. You see how many people were there. The official count was around 100,000. I think it's actually more than that. I think that's a conservative estimate. Let me show you this right here. This was also from the hands-off protest.

Senator Cory Booker joining a hands-off protest in Montclair, New Jersey with a message for us all. We achieved great things in this country because average citizens stood up and said enough is enough. And this is one of those moments. Play this clip. We achieved every great thing in this country because average citizens stood up and said enough is enough. and bonded together across differences, across gender, race, and even party, and said it's time we invite to bend the arc of the moral universe more towards justice. And so what I'm seeing now is outrageous, and I hope we all are outraged. But it's time to turn our anger into action, our worry into work. It's time to turn our fear into

fight because we have seen these kind of fights before and we won. Take a look at another one of these huge protests taking place in Kansas City, Missouri yesterday. Play the clip. Also, massive protests in Salt Lake City, Utah. Let's play it. Now, here was a huge crowd that gathered in Denver, Colorado yesterday. Let's play it. And here were protesters marching in Charlotte, North Carolina, as part of the hands-off movement, again in thousands of cities and towns across the United States. Let's play it. USA! USA! In Washington, D.C., Congress member Eric Swalwell delivered a speech in front of the huge crowd right there. Let me show you what went down. Let's play it. Because as you stand here right now, we have gone from a Trump slump to a Trump train wreck. We are going into a red recession.

Our 401ks are 201ks. Our costs at Walmart and Home Depot and Target, where four out of five of the things we buy are from overseas, are going up. And where is Donald Trump? He's golfing. So to Donald Trump, I say, get your ass off the golf course and face the people. And here's Congress member Eric Swalwell again. Let's play it. Democratic Congress memberie raskin also gave an incredible speech in washington dc let me play that clip for you as well he gave us the right to speak freely to publish freely to worship freely to assemble freely and to petition government

for a redress of grievances. As Dr. King said, we've got the right to protest for what is right without being arrested, deported, or fired. We've got the right to read the books we want, including 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale, even if they now belong in the nonfiction section. The president deranged for crashing our economy, destroying $6 trillion of wealth and turning my 401k into a 201k. I want to highlight some great signs that we saw at the protest yesterday. We saw a sign like this in Kalispell, Montana. IKEA has better cabinets. Here's another great one in Illinois. They are eating the checks. They are eating the balances. Here's another one. People dressed up as penguins because Donald Trump's regime tariffed penguins for 10% tariffs on penguins. The penguins showed up to protest at a hands-off event.

And they had the photo of Donald Trump, the portrait that Trump hated from the Colorado Statehouse. And it says, traitor in chief. Another A-plus protest sign at a hands-off protest in Rockford, Illinois. It says, pretend where Melania Donald hands off. Some other great photos and protest signs of Donald Trump and Putin. Here's Donald Trump, the complete and total slob. Another very creative sign of Donald Trump as a little baby. Here's one that says, we are not okay. One says, Trump's a little B word. Then there's another poster that has a photo of President Zelensky.

It says, not a dictator. A photo of Putin that says, dictator. A photo of J.D. Vance that says, dick. And a photo of Donald Trump all in the same poster that says, traitor. Here's another one, another great sign I want to share with you. Hunk, if you've never drunk texted war plans. Here, a grandma had a sign that said, I'd call Trump a C word, but he lacks depth and warmth. So a lot of signs like that,

we don't really curse here on the Midas Touch Network, but I want to highlight what some of those signs are. Let me just share with you some of the other protests where we were either tagged in or, you know, or there were so many. So if I didn't capture your city, I may have done it in an earlier video, the ones I did yesterday,

but I'm going to do my best to highlight some of these protests like this one in Helena, Montana, people coming out in Montana, in Gurney, Illinois, a lot of people coming out, Kalispell, Montana, loads of protesters in San Diego, Omaha, Nebraska, what's up? Fresno, California, which actually went Trump in this last election. Lots of protesters there. In Las Vegas, Nevada, protesters are showing up in force. This was in Austin, Texas, where Democratic House Representative Greg Kassar made an appearance, and here's what he had to say. Let you all very much. Protesters in Rockford, Illinois. Protesters in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. In Hawaii.

This was an interesting one from Philip Gorvich, a writer from The New Yorker, responding to more nomen. I've never seen anything like this in New York City. Fifth Avenue covered from 42nd Street well to the 20s. Nobody prepared for this volume. Volunteers are holding the traffic on all the side streets. No police in sight. Philip Gorvich then responds, I asked one high-ranking policeman I saw on Fifth Avenue why there were so few police. He said, quote, we did not expect anything like this. Don't tell anyone, but I've only got 44 officers out there, and it's a great crowd, no event

incidents, which I think is very important. These were peaceful protests, peaceful protests across the country. Despite there being peaceful protests, Elon Musk was calling for the arrest of people and threatening people as these protests are growing. Clearly, Elon Musk and Donald Trump, very, very scared about the size and scope and growing nature of these protests. Go to a place like San Luis Obispo, California, 10,000 people showed up there in San Luis

Obispo, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, hands-off protest. Macon, Georgia, huge protests there. Asheville, North Carolina, Illinois State Capitol, Akron, Ohio, Iceland. We had lots of people dressed up, whether they were in New Hampshire, other areas in the New England region, wearing the Midas gear and showing up with Midas gear. Huge turnout in Houston as well. I mean, folks, people were out and about with force. Try to show you some other ones right here. Atlanta, what's up? Pennsylvania, Lancaster, what's up? Pronouncing it right this time. Duluth, Minnesota, what's up?

Asheville, North Carolina, Columbus, Ohio, Portland, Maine, Cincinnati, Ohio. Going internationally, London. There were also protests in Canada. Concord, New Hampshire, Richmond. I could keep going on and on and on. I'm sorry if I missed your protest. Sorry if I missed it, but I can't have this video go on forever. But we are going to cover all this stuff here at the Midas Touch Network.

Now, you may recall a recent article that Vanity Fair wrote about the Midas Touch Network. And here's what the title was. This was from March 13, 2025. The Trump resistance won't be televised. It'll be on Midas Touch. The progressive network is thriving in a second Trump term, recently dethroning Joe Rogan and becoming a destination for prominent Democrats. The resistance will be on Midas Touch.

We've made this such an important point of ours as we grow this network to make sure that we have these rallies on. We knew corporate news was not going to cover it or the way they should be covering it. Now that we have this huge platform, it was vital for us to share it with you and show you it. This is what Elon Musk posted, by the way. He responded to this account, Am. Soros funded Indivisible is admitting they are behind the 1300 paid protest happening today in all 50 states. Democratic billionaires are funding uprisings and they should be held legally accountable for violence. Musk responds, they will be. Folks, these were peaceful protests, unlike Musk and Donald Trump, who are destroying the lives of veterans, destroying Social Security and Medicaid. As we responded on the Midas Touch account, keep downplaying the protests at your own peril, Elon and Donald.

Keep threatening Americans. The protests will only get bigger. Trump is hated. Musk is hated. The political winds have shifted. People are fed up. This is only the beginning. I'm Ben Micellis from the Midas Touch Network. Great work to all of the organizers of the protest. Everybody who showed up loved all the people wearing the Midas gear as well. These protests will continue to grow in times that

are certainly filled with doom and gloom news as Donald Trump and Elon Musk and the regime continue to take a wrecking ball to the United States of America and the world. It is great to see people rising up. People will rise up. People will take back our freedoms. I'm Ben Micellas. This is the MidasPlus.com.