The MeidasTouch Podcast - MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 12/23/25

Episode Date: December 23, 2025

On this episode of the MeidasTouch Podcast, we break down a stunning moment as Bill Clinton flips the script on Donald Trump, publicly calling on him to release all of the Epstein files while Trump’...s increasingly brazen cover-up continues to unravel. We also examine Trump’s renewed threats to annex Greenland as the U.S. military shifts toward a war footing against Venezuela. Plus, we dive into a bizarre Turning Point USA event that exposed deep Republican infighting, Trump’s obsession with slapping his name on everything in sight, and the growing chaos of the Trump regime. Ben, Brett, and Jordy break it all down. Subscribe to Meidas+ at https://meidasplus.com Get Meidas Merch: https://store.meidastouch.com Deals from our sponsors!  HomeServe: Plans start at just $4.99 a month. Go to https://HomeServe.com to find the plan that’s right for you and help protect your home systems – and your wallet – with HomeServe against covered repairs. Smalls: Head to https://Smalls.com/MEIDAS and use promo code MEIDAS at checkout for 60% off your first order PLUS free shipping! ZBiotics: Head to https://zbiotics.com/MEIDAS to get 15% off your first order when you use MEIDAS at checkout. Armra: Go to https://armra.com/meidas or enter MEIDAS to get 30% off your first subscription order!  Hims: Thanks to HIMS! Start your free online visit today at https://hims.com/meidas for your personalized ED treatment options. Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:57 oil tankers. You have the Trump regime, essentially threatening war with Greenland appointing a special envoy, the current governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, who put out a statement saying that we are going to make Greenland hours. A reminder, Greenland is part of the kingdom of Denmark, a NATO ally. Denmark and Greenland, the prime ministers of both locations issued a powerful response. We'll talk about what's going down there. And you see our former allies, kind of a World War III war footing as a result of Donald Trump's behavior. You have this deranged GOP turning point USA event in Phoenix where all these GOP influencers were attacking each other. It also looked, in my opinion, like a white supremacist rally at times.
Starting point is 00:02:49 You had JD Vance saying that now white people are not afraid to say they're white anymore. And then you had a bizarre special guest appearance by Nikki Minaj, who referred to J.D. Vance as an assassin to Erica Kirk. And then she went on to threaten the life, in my opinion, that's what it looked like of California Governor Gavin Newsom at this event. We'll break that down. And then you have Donald Trump slapping his name on just about everything unlawfully from putting his name on the Kennedy Center to putting his name on the Institute of Peace, putting banners of himself everywhere on buildings in Washington, D.C. earlier today, they announced a new class of Navy vessels referred to as the Trump class. Well, Americans just want affordable housing, affordable groceries, an economy that works for most Americans and not the billionaires.
Starting point is 00:03:47 We'll break it all down here on the Midas Touch podcast. It's great to be with everybody right before Christmas. If we don't check in with you before Christmas, but don't worry, we're going to be doing videos every day. Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanza. And it's been a great time to be with all of you in solidarity and standing up to this regime. Brett, Jordy. Happy holidays, everybody. It's great to be here. Ben and Jordy, it's great to be here. Midas, Mighty. I know we got a whole lot to discuss today. I think the thing that I'm just most, I don't know if I should be surprised or shouldn't be surprised about this, but the cover-up has just been so sloppy in regards to the Epstein thing. And, you know,
Starting point is 00:04:27 if they thought that releasing the files in the way that they did by withholding so much, by redacting so much, by being so selective in their releases, by taking things off once they discovered that Donald Trump's face was in a photo, all the things that they are doing is actually making this whole situation look way, way, way worse. It's actually causing people to ask even more questions than they had before this first dump of documents. I just cannot believe Maybe I should. I just really can't believe how bad they are at this cover-up. But we're lucky that they're bad at the cover-up, and we've been catching them every step of the way. We're going to go through that. I know we've got a lot to discuss. So I'm going to toss it to Jordi. Jordy, what's the latest? What's up, brothers? What's up, Midas-Mighty? I'm excited for tonight's show. With that, Benji, where are we starting off tonight, big bro? I mean, look, when we talk about this cover-up, I don't want to center this away from these survivors, right? Because they've been re-victimized by this.
Starting point is 00:05:22 been psychologically tortured. These are people who have experienced the unthinkable, who have PTSD, who are being traumatized over and over again by this behavior. Now, whatever comes next, this process has been irreversibly tainted. There's nothing that you can trust that comes out of this. And I know we all knew that the Trump regime was not going to comply with the Epstein Transparency Act when all of the files. were due on Friday. That's what the law said. There was an ambiguity. The law didn't say the first phase starts on December 19th or you can do rolling productions. It said all of the files must be made public with the exception of limited redactions of the victim's names,
Starting point is 00:06:12 the survivor's names, the victim and the survivors faces. That's it. Everything else comes out. There's no ambiguity. There's no confusion. So early, on Friday, you had Donald Trump's former criminal defense lawyer, who's now the number two at the DOJ, Todd Blanche. It should be noted, all of the top Justice Department officials, Pam Bonding, all these people were Donald Trump's former lawyers. They're out there protecting him. But Todd Blanche says, well, we're going to start our first phase, our rolling production. No, no, no. You had to turn everything over. We know back in March from the FOIA requests that were made by Jason Leopold at Bloomberg and others, there were over a thousand FBI agents and DOJ officials back in March.
Starting point is 00:06:58 What were the overtime hours? Over 14,000 overtime hours or some really large number like that. And throughout this period of time, the amount of people who were placed from the National Security Division of the DOJ and FBI to review these files has been, it's been a massive amount of time. And look, to give you some of my personal background and experience, I've been in cases that have involved more documents than are in the Epstein files where there were terabytes of productions. I was in a billion dollar Ponzi scheme case where I was the prosecuting attorney and there were enough documents and videos and witness statements that could fill 380 story skyscrapers.
Starting point is 00:07:47 That's how it was described to me by our e-discovery vendor, our electronic discovery vendor. If you just put the documents from the floor to the ceiling, what you would do, and this was before AI and all these other tools to help you go through the documents and videos, but I assigned four or five associates for about a month and a half, two months. That's all they did. They went through everything. Occasionally they used before AI and before all these tools. They just use like keyword searches to try to prioritize things. So you would try to look that way and maybe prioritize your search. But then you would be able to produce all of these things and have everything ready to go by, you know, a month and a half.
Starting point is 00:08:35 And you would use these electronic discovery tools to load the documents. And you would work with the opposing counsel to do it. Like this is not actually all that of a complicated task. and you would do attorney-client privilege redactions and all the other redactions that I would do. So this is a manageable task. I'm thinking to myself, imagine if I had the equivalent of one of these massive law firms, right, a thousand lawyers or whatever it is at my disposal to go through these documents. I mean, it probably could have been done in a week.
Starting point is 00:09:08 I just want to give you that perspective that I have having litigated cases with massive amounts of documents. I'll give you this perspective as well, because I think, it's helpful that we move the needle forward and give you interesting perspectives that you're not hearing anywhere else. I've been on the receiving end of document dumps where a party has tried to cover up their malfeasance when a judge has ordered them to produce documents by a certain date. But they've at least done it in a semi-sophisticated way. They would show you some documents, but they wouldn't have all of them. So you would be like, oh, they must be producing something because it has this on it. Why would they show that if they're covering up that?
Starting point is 00:09:53 But then ultimately, you would send out third party subpoenas. If this was this Trump situation, you know, to the Epstein estate. And you would, you know, say to these third parties, you know, wait a minute, I'm getting documents from the third parties that I didn't see in this production. so maybe I'm not getting all of the documents. And then sometimes you would ask the judge to appoint a discovery referee to jump in and help show you if, in fact, the other side wasn't turning over the documents that they were required to. So what the Trump DOJ is doing, it wasn't even like a sophisticated cover up, right?
Starting point is 00:10:30 They didn't even produce documents that we know they have, which were those Epstein estate documents that were turned over to the Democrats of the House Oversight Committee. like they didn't even produce those ones and we know that's in their possession custody and control because we all have them so clearly it's in their possession custody and control so it was a just an eff you to the american people saying we don't care that this is the law we don't care that there is a deadline here screw you and look for the american people's perspective that's bad but where i started was this is re-victimizing the survivors and none of us should be okay with that so anyway Donald Trump held a press conference to talk about the Trump naval ships,
Starting point is 00:11:16 that that's what he's calling him now, the Trump naval ships. By the way, how much are all of you looking forward when this regime is over and the next president changes all these names and tears down the ballroom? And it's going to feel like when Saddam Hussein was with the statues coming down, I think about that day. And I know you think about that day as well. So anyway, the purpose of this press conference ostensibly was to talk about the Trump ships. That's what he's calling.
Starting point is 00:11:45 And Trump's like, I designed him with my own aesthetic. Okay, well, that's pretty, that's not a good thing if you're the one designing Navy ships. And that's, by the way, one of the reasons authoritarian often fall from power and are defeated is because they think that they alone can fix it. And they push away people with expertise, knowledge and intelligence and people who care about the truth. and science because authoritarian shun that. So, you know, we'll see if it's Trump's aesthetic what that actually means for the ships. But at this presser, Donald Trump was asked about the Epstein files and the release and the cover-up. So one question that seems to be a planted question, which Trump botched, was a question about former president Bill Clinton.
Starting point is 00:12:31 So the question was like, so there's all of these photos of Bill Clinton. What do you make of that now? in this Trump production, Trump considered all of the men who were perpetrators, who were implicated, who were mentioned as though they were the victims in the files. So that the victims were not the actual victims and survivors, but it was the men who were mentioned. Remember when Maga Mike Johnson was saying, oh, what we're really worried about here and why he at first did not support the discharge petition
Starting point is 00:13:04 is he said it would create a whole new class of victims referring to the men who are involved, referring to the perpetrator. Well, that was how the Justice Department went about a lot of these redactions by treating that group of people, except for Bill Clinton. And these photos of Bill Clinton were produced kind of without context. And they were like photos of Bill Clinton, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, and children. and the children's faces were redacted, and it turns out like they were like Diana Ross's children, right? There was another photo of Bill Clinton in a pool, and someone's face was redacted,
Starting point is 00:13:43 and it turns out that it was in a, called the Emperor Suite in Brunei at a hotel, and that the person's face was redacted wasn't a victim. It seemed that the person's face who was redacted was someone who was actually a co-conspirator of Epstein, and the implication was, was that, you know, this was a victim and they were in this pool together naked, but they were like wearing bathing suit. So they put out all these Clinton posts. Let me be very clear where I stand. I'm not defending former President Bill Clinton if he's in these files doing anything wrong or incorrect or engaging in criminality.
Starting point is 00:14:18 And anyway, release all the files. No one, regardless of your political affiliation, get the files out there. It's just that simple. That's how we should all feel about it, right? And by the way, earlier today, former president Bill Clinton, and I'm glad he finally did this, put out a statement saying, release all the files. And I think he should have done that a long time ago. And he said, look, and it was through a spokesperson, a former president Clinton, he's like, look, it's obvious you're selectively leaking photos of me. Release everything.
Starting point is 00:14:49 Anything that I mentioned in anything at all. Just release it. Stop the selective dropping of things. The law said release it, and you're not doing it. I'm glad that Bill Clinton finally, you know, did that. Anyway, so Trump was asked about it. And so just listen to Trump's response because Trump's like, I like Bill Clinton. He's a good guy.
Starting point is 00:15:07 I think he's a really good guy. I feel bad for him. He's a bud of mine. He's a really good guy. And when you hear this, I want you just, to me, this just shows you what a fraud and a con Donald Trump is. He's your friend. He's a good guy.
Starting point is 00:15:23 You're upset that he's in these photos. You put them in. But that's what a social. The sociopath does, and if you know sociopaths in your life, you recognize this behavior. Trump's just a nuclear sociopath. Let's play this clip. Thank you, Mr. President. Were you surprised by the number of photos of Bill Clinton in the Epstein files, and can you commit to their full... By what?
Starting point is 00:15:44 And were you surprised by the number of photos of Bill Clinton in the Epstein files, and can you commit to their full release by the end of the year? Some of the victims were protesting that too many of them were redacted. I know. There were a lot of people that are angry about all of the... pictures of other people you know but i think it's terrible look i don't like the i like bill clinton i've always gotten along with bill clinton i've been nice to him he's been nice to me we've always gotten along respect him i hate to see photos come out of him but this is what the democrats mostly democrats and a couple of bad republicans are asking for so they're giving their photos of me too
Starting point is 00:16:18 everybody was friendly with this guy either friendly or not friendly but they're you know he was around he was all over pompea let me bring in brett and jordy right there that's a so sociopath right there. That is deranged behavior right there. And it also speaks to the fact that this regime thinks you're stupid. Like they truly think that you're not just stupid, you watching and you're listening. They think you are as stupid as stupid can be, that he can say something like that and that they expect you to have the maga mush brain to go, well, I guess so. I guess that ends it. Okay. That makes, they're close. They're buds. He feels bad for Bill.
Starting point is 00:17:01 It's utterly bizarre, Ben. And I think it's interesting that that's what he decides to say the day that we see former president, Bill Clinton, turn the tables on Donald Trump and actually challenge him to release the full files and say, listen, man, I've got nothing to hide. Release all the files. Stop the selective releases of me. Release any pictures you have of me, put him out there. Any documents you have of me, put him out there. I'm not afraid. Are you afraid?
Starting point is 00:17:25 Let's do it. That's what the law says. And then all of a sudden, Donald Trump's like, oh, Bill Clinton, he's a good, good guy. Yeah, really good guy. Really good guy. I like that guy a whole lot. Something that you did not hear Donald Trump say in that speech was, yes, let's just release all the files right now. Bill Clinton is right. Let's get all the files. Let's get them out there. You know, I think it's very telling, honestly, when you hear someone like Bill Clinton say, release everything, I'm not afraid. When you see somebody like a Reid Hoffman go out there and say, release everything, I'm not afraid.
Starting point is 00:17:56 and then you see Donald Trump, and he goes, nope, don't do it. Please don't do it. I think it's just very telling. And I know there's a frustration out there amongst people because they are treating all of us like we are stupid with the release of these files. And the way they are doing it is meant to obstruct the process and obstruct the law. But, you know, I always think as frustrated as I am, I go back to, you know, what Benno was saying in the beginning of this episode. imagine how frustrated and just depressed and how hurt the survivors are.
Starting point is 00:18:31 And imagine going way, way, way back decades to as early as around like 1996 or so, people who have been victimized by this man, trying to get answers, trying to get responses from various FBI's with various reports, and hitting these same brick walls every single step of the way. Like what we are all experiencing right now is a mere friend. of what their survivors have had to endure over the past few decades. And I think it's important that we all keep that in mind. Well, said, B.
Starting point is 00:19:02 And when Trump was, you know, talking about his great relationship with Bill Clinton over there, I couldn't help but wonder if he was going to refer to him as his baba. But that one never came out during that clip. Anyway, on a more serious note, to your point there, Brett and Ben, it's the gaslighting for me. It's like when Donald Trump is even fielding these questions from reporters, for our audio listeners, there's almost a look of bewilderment shock on Donald Trump's face as he's getting asked the questions about Epstein.
Starting point is 00:19:32 Like, he can't even fathom that you, that you people out there, that you guys still want to understand what's going on with those files. Like, Trump is a serial gaslighter on top of being a sociopath. And Ben, you said it perfectly. It's because he thinks you're dumb. It's because he thinks whatever trick he's trying to play on the American people. isn't just going to work, that it's already worked. And I think that's just continuing to infuriate
Starting point is 00:20:00 the American people more and more, especially when you bring it back to, oh, no, there are real people behind these files. There are real victims here, and now they have to relive this in this utterly sociopathic way that Donald Trump is forcing down the American people. It's crazy to see in real time, Ben.
Starting point is 00:20:22 Well, look, from... Look, from Trump's perspective, and I'm not making excuses for him, what I want to show you is that his view is look at Pam Bondi, look at Todd Blanche, look at Maga Mike Johnson, look at James Comer, look at Jim Jordan, look at all of the people who Trump surrounds himself with. Look at what Elise DeFonick did. You know, she, of course, said that she's leaving the New York governor's race on Friday and quitting politics altogether. But look at how these people bent and broke and parroted what he says, the delusional stuff, right? And the cognitive dissonance, although it's also cognitive decline. And there's a whole other analysis we make of Donald Trump there. And we should be talking about his physical and mental deterioration before.
Starting point is 00:21:18 or our eyes and yet another cover up going there is how is it though that the majority of Americans don't buy the crap that I'm selling right now when there's this group that does and why can't I and he's frustrated that America and the people have stood up to this and like no you're a liar you're involved in a criminal sex trafficking ring cover up right now we're not okay with this we're not stupid we know what you're doing we're not maga mike you know, he's upset that there are people with morals still and ethics and people who care about the truth. And that part about it is very frustrating for a majority. You mentioned it's kind of like, you know, Donald Trump's out there saying, you still care about this. He literally
Starting point is 00:22:06 said that. He goes, you know, this whole thing with Epstein is a way to deflect. You still care about this? Like, I'm surprised people even, he literally said that. Here, play this clip. He's just being used by the Democrats, because what this whole thing is with Epstein is a way of trying to deflect from the tremendous success that the Republican Party has. Like, for instance, today we're building the biggest ships in the world, most powerful ships in the world. And they're asking me questions about Jeffrey Epstein. I thought that was finished. So, Jord, he actually says that I thought that was finished. I have just never seen in the history of politics or perhaps anything seen such an incredible own.
Starting point is 00:22:47 goal, I guess I will call it, you know, like Donald Trump made this such a centerpiece of his campaign. He tried to weaponize the Epstein files to go after all of his political opponents. He basically rose to popularity on the whole idea of QAnon, which was tangentially related to things around the Epstein files. And then all of a sudden he's in power. And now he has to actually produce the documents. And he realized that he's being caught in his own web of lies, in his own web of deceit, and that he, of course, had a very close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Jeffrey Epstein, what did he used to call Donald Trump from the New York Times report? Like, my best friend Don or something like that, like they were best friends going back for
Starting point is 00:23:29 a very long time. And so when you have Donald Trump out there, and he promises to release the Epstein files, and then they put this minimal release after it was like pulling teeth to get them, after a law, a literal law, had to be passed in order to force any sort of action. And then they put out this little batch of files, I think, like under five, like it's five percent of it, and they're mostly redacted. And then you don't even see the photos of Donald Trump and Epstein that we know exist. And then the one photo that we actually see of them was inside a drawer that they clearly missed. And then they took the photo down for a little bit once people caught wind of it.
Starting point is 00:24:04 And then we caught them taking it down. It's like they're not doing anything to help their case here. And that's why I just release the files. I don't understand what is so difficult about this. Now, we're at a point where it's like the cover-up really is worse than the crime. And, you know, if you really, truly did not do anything wrong, then you should just be able to explain yourself, right? Just because you're in a photo with somebody does necessarily mean, you know, association
Starting point is 00:24:29 does not mean guilt, right? People are asking me, so, you know, why aren't you speaking out about Bill Clinton? I said, I don't like Bill Clinton's association with Jeffrey Epstein one bid. I'd happily speak out about him. But show me, you know, somewhere where it says that he did something wrong. That's, those are the things that I need to know. I mean, seeing a picture of Bill Clinton in a pool with his shirt, I mean, people have shirts off in pools, you know? We need context for a lot of this stuff, and we need people to be able to explain themselves.
Starting point is 00:24:55 But Donald Trump's refusal to explain anything and instead doing the opposite and continuously trying to deflect and say, it's this person, it's that person. That right there, to me, is what makes him seem guiltier and makes this even, like, darker, the fact that he's covering this whole thing up. I think that is the most troubling part for me. Exactly. And it's been a series of own goals when you talk about the Epstein file release. Let's start with the beginning of this regime. He invited the MAGA influencers to the White House, gave them binders. They did the whole photo op that they have. Well, people weren't buying that BS.
Starting point is 00:25:28 And then come time to release these files after everyone fought tooth and, sorry, let me rephrase, after the pro-democracy coalition fought tooth and nail to get the release of the files. You had MAGA Mike Johnson trying to kneel the football and just run out the clock on it. Finally, the files do get released or are set to be released. And what do they do? They wait the entirety of the allotted time to even release the files. Come the day of the release, they make up this headline saying that we are going to meet the initial deadline of the files and then continue to release more and more.
Starting point is 00:26:07 It's a series of own goals because at every turn, they've gaslit the American people. people with the release of these files. And at every step of the way, folks have been calling them out for their BS because people are genuinely interested in this. Because like I said in the beginning, there are real victims. There are real victims and people genuinely want justice.
Starting point is 00:26:29 Not some sort of fake MAGA justice where Donald Trump could say, oh, I did it and we're great. And now it's time to move. No, folks want real answers when it comes to this. And so the series of own goals that we've seen for MAGA, just, I mean, that is. is this Trump regime in a nutshell? Also, Bill Clinton is not the current president
Starting point is 00:26:49 of the United States. Bill Clinton was impeached when he was in office on perjury based on his description of oral sex in an investigation that started about a real estate transaction. Bill Clinton's not leading the country. You know, at the end of the day, everything that the Trump regime right now wants to do is, Well, Biden this and Obama that and y'all are in charge.
Starting point is 00:27:18 This guy is the leader right now. And if former President Bill Clinton, he's not able to, but if he was running for office again or, you know, and we had to evaluate their character and their associations, we should in the context of an election or in the context of their decisions bearing upon our existence and our lives right now. No, Donald Trump is making a number of reckless and malicious decisions that are affirmatively harming the American people right now, and Donald Trump is out there calling this a hoax,
Starting point is 00:27:57 and Donald Trump was the one out there who made the Epstein files like one of his signature issues. That's what he talked about. That's what Cash Patel talked about. That's what Dan Bongino talked about. That's what Pam Bondi, this whole, one of these things, this whole right-wing movement in the U.S. built on is that they were the ones who were uncovering the secret child sex trafficking rings out there and they're the ones who are now covering it up.
Starting point is 00:28:22 It's also why it's important that we have an international perspective of these things because it's actually an attribute of right-wing ultra-nationalistic movements in trying to appeal to the people and divide countries. If you look at how Victor Orban came into power as well in Hungary, an authoritarian regime there. playbook. They were the ones who are going to uncover the child sex trafficking ring and they've been exposed in Budapest in running a child prostitution ring essentially out of the child penitent, the child detention centers out there. And there are all these protests taking place in Budapest
Starting point is 00:29:01 because their authoritarian regime is also complicit in a cover up of a child sex trafficking ring. And it is an attribute of these right wing movements. And it's why it's helpful that we make these connections and oftentimes they're either the perpetrators or they're the ones aiding and abetting in the cover-ups. It's an interesting point to expand our horizons and recognize that there are these right-man authoritarian movements using these same talking points. So let's take our first quick break of the show. A reminder, hit subscribe. We're on our way to six million subscribers right now. When we come back, we've got a lot more to discuss. And I didn't mention at the top, but we should also be discussing basically how CBS is totally dead.
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Starting point is 00:33:30 Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors, links in description of both YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know. sent you i genuinely love those two sponsors so check them out benjy where to next so last night donald trump posted that he was appointing a special envoy to greenland he said he was appointing governor jeff landry um and before governor jeff landry made a post in response i did a video saying oh yeah that's a that's a threat of war right there and how do i know that because this is how authoritarian speak. The idea of an envoy for what? The envoy in Trump's mind is the way he's got his envoy in Ukraine, which is to basically hand over Ukraine to Russia. Trump's own mind is
Starting point is 00:34:19 he needs an envoy that's basically going to demand that Denmark give the United States, Greenland. And the person Trump selected is the governor of Louisiana. And this guy's a maniac. This name is governor Jeff Landry. This guy's been corrupt his whole life. You know, Louisiana had a lot of great choices to pick in terms of Democrats to be leaders and they pick the maniac. Louisiana is now in terms of all of the lists of like best states to live in and health and jobs. It's always usually now towards the bottom across the board. You know, they really launch this MAGA assault on their own citizens. And it's one of these laboratories of autocracy where they show how much suffering can people take, where you throw at them, you know, all of the right-wing talking
Starting point is 00:35:10 points and, you know, just hope their partisan views make them never vote Democrat, basically. So Governor Jeff Landry responds to Trump saying that he is the selection of special envoy, and he goes, thank you. It's an honor to serve you in this volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the U.S. This in no way affects my position as governor of Louisiana. Now, it should be clear that that's a statement of war. It's a statement of aggression. I know that media doesn't want to talk about it like that because Trump has one very little credibility. So his threatening war isn't viewed as, oh, is that really a war or is that just Trump being Trump? But also the media doesn't want to use this language. The media doesn't want to say what it is. They want to give
Starting point is 00:35:57 him cover. We'll talk more about CBS a little bit later in this episode, but they don't talk about it that way. I mean, could you imagine if former President Biden or former President Obama or former President George W. Bush or Clinton made a statement about conquering and taking over Greenland? Do you think that it would at least make the new cycle? Or do you think it would lead the new cycle? Or do you think it would lead the Newsweek? Do you think that there would be camera crews set up in Greenland waiting for the invasion? Don't you think that would happen if another president made statements like that. And when Donald Trump makes it, it's discounted because one, he lies about everything. But also it's discounted because the prevailing
Starting point is 00:36:38 view is, ah, he's not really going to do that. Ah, he's not really going to do that. Well, you know, go look at the history of what people were saying about Putin and Ukraine. Ah, he's not actually going to launch a full-fledged invasion and try to take over Kiev. No, that's, that's his view. That's what Putin wants. Putin's quote unquote special operation to denotify Ukraine, which is the pretext to use, a deranged and utter lie to use to invade and take over Ukraine, a sovereign territory. Trump's got his versions of that. Those rare earth elements in Greenland belong to us. We need it for our national security. What's Trump saying about Venezuela? They stole our land. They stole our oil, we need to reclaim it and bring it back. It's the same exact type of language as Putin.
Starting point is 00:37:28 It's why, again, as I mentioned before, you draw the parallels between MAGA and Orban's MAGA, hungry MAGA, right? And you have to draw the parallels between Trump's language there and Putin's language there. And you go back to when this regime started. Remember what I was showing you, Marco Rubio's speeches, where he talked about a multipolar international world with Russia, the U.S. and China. That's how Trump sees things. China controls Asia. Screwed Japan, screw Taiwan, screw South Korea. That belongs to China. All of it. Europe belongs to Russia. The Western Hemisphere, Greenland, Central America, Mexico, South America belongs to the U.S. Xi Jinping, Trump, Putin. That's how Donald Trump, Canada belongs to the U.S. That's how Trump sees the world.
Starting point is 00:38:22 to recognize that that's how he sees the world. And if he could invade Canada and take it over without resistance, he would do it. That's what he means by 51st 8. He was looking for a pretext to invade Venezuela. He keeps on seizing these tankers, including one recently that was a Panamanian flagged tanker going to China with 2 billion barrels of oil. That was not on a sanction list. Postcard just took it. Like, we just stole their oil. And Trump says, well, it belongs to me now. Trump's trying to provoke the war in Venezuela. And just think about this language that's being used here. And so the prime minister met to Fredrickson and the premier of Greenland, Jen's Frederick Nielsen, they issue a joint statement saying the following, national borders
Starting point is 00:39:12 and state sovereignty are deeply rooted in international law. These are fundamental principles. No one cannot annex other countries, not even by invoking our of international security. Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people. We expect respect for our shared territorial integrity. No one must be allowed to change the national borders by force, neither politically nor militarily. So, you know, there you have that. And I'll show you what Donald Trump said at this press conference earlier about Greenland. Listen to what he said. Let's play that clip of what Trump said about Greenland. But he felt very strongly, we needed financials. We need Greenland for national security. Not
Starting point is 00:39:52 for minerals. We have so many sites for minerals and oil and everything. We have more oil than any other country in the world. We need Greenland for national security. And if you take a look at Greenland, you look up and down the coast. You have Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need it for national security. We have to have it. And he wanted to lead the
Starting point is 00:40:12 charge. So we're making him, Marco, today, a special envoy to Greenland. Greenland's a big deal. Brett and Jordy. It's the way authoritarian speak. And while our media might not take that super seriously, you know that the countries themselves are taking that seriously. You know that Greenland has taken it seriously and Denmark is taking it seriously. And when he says similar things about 51st state with Canada, you know, the Canadians are taking that seriously. You know, when he threatens Mexico saying that he's going to bomb inside Mexican
Starting point is 00:40:39 territory to get at the cartels, you know that Mexico is taking that seriously. And you could tell because he's also using the same sort of tactics that he's using right now in Venezuela that he's using with all these other countries that are supposedly our allies are supposed to be our allies. But you see the same exact lies as Ben was going at, you know, before about Venezuela, where, you know, in Venezuela, he's saying all this stuff belongs to us and Venezuela took all the stuff to us. So it's our right to get it back. That is no different than, as Ben said, what Vladimir Putin did in the lead up to Ukraine. And Ben, I so remember all the people back then saying that former President Joe Biden was trying to rile people up, that he was being.
Starting point is 00:41:19 alarmist that Russia would never do such a thing, but you know at the time who did not buy that, the Ukrainians who were ready for it. You know, they understood the intelligence and realized that they had to be prepared. Now, I think that's what all these countries unfortunately have to do because you're dealing with an unhinged sociopath, psychopath, and I mean that in the literal meaning of those terms, someone who's very erratic and a bunch of yes men around him who refused to say no to even his worst instincts. you're dealing with the madman he's got all the power in the world right now he's got access to nuclear weapons he's got access to the united states military and he clearly is okay with using it
Starting point is 00:42:00 for means that even if it borders on or is completely illegal um and so we're just watching this play out day in and day out and you know i think you also have to look at all this also in the context of of course the release of the epstein files and people's demand to get more and things like that I mean, there's a reason why he starts going back to the threats against Greenland now, right? As people are furious at the so-called release of the Epstein files. I think he goes back into his bag of old tricks. And he'll do it. Honestly, this is a guy who will start a war in order to try to get people's attention off of Epstein.
Starting point is 00:42:37 Like, I have no doubt in my mind that he is sick enough to do that. It's a great point. And it's why I say often we need adults in the room. we need adults in these positions of leadership here, because what Donald Trump is doing, it's just making us look weak, first and foremost. As an American, it pains me to see this from our quote-unquote leader, because at the end of it, I don't understand what this accomplishes. Like when he just talks, like, such a maniac like this, and when he puts this stuff out there
Starting point is 00:43:08 and attacks these countries, for me, it's just like, why? And Brett, to your point, exactly, it's to distract. It's trying to, obviously in this case, it seems like, to distract from the Epstein files and the release of those. And so Trump could continue to get more questions about this particular subject matter. And I hate it. I just hate it. I know we all do. I know that's the obvious thing to say here.
Starting point is 00:43:30 But again, I am worried about what this man is going to do for future generations of this country. We all have kids here on the podcast, not just for our kids, but for everybody's kids. It's going to be very hard for our current allies or folks who, you know, at least used to think they were our allies to have that same perception of us going forward. It's going to be a hard stench to wash off of us, you know, even if we are hopefully able to get back into a more pro-democracy area of this country. Man, Benji, what's your take on that? Where do you see this like in the future? Well, here's the thing now. Every country is now making long-term plans to move away from the U.S., like long-term.
Starting point is 00:44:18 Because even if you brought in a pro-democracy administration, right, I think every country, you know, that was formerly allied with us is going to say, yeah, that's great. And we like you. But we know that in four to eight years, y'all are capable of bringing in somebody like Trump. And so we've trusted you. implicitly since World War II to be the leader of the free world, and we don't trust you anymore, forever, forever. I think a future president will, who's pro-democracy, can make
Starting point is 00:44:59 repairs, and I think they will. I think they'll physically rip down a lot of this Trump name stuff and nonsense. I think they'll, you know, make a Herculean effort. They're going to be running on this as a platform, right? To restore federal government back to competency, bring in like the people from the CDC and everyone who was fired. And I think there's going to be real thirst for the generals and the leaders and the scientists to want to come back as patriotism, right, and to help. It's never going to, I'm just being blunt and I'm not trying to be nihilistic.
Starting point is 00:45:34 I think it's just truthful, right? It is an irreparable breach that the United States has engaged in with anybody. And sure, you may bring in a new person, but the world's going to say, yeah, we get that. But in four years, eight years, 12 years, you're capable of bringing back a Trump because you brought this guy back after you knew everything about it. Another point I want to make, though, I think it's an important one with Trump making more aggressive threats against Greenland, right? Who was hanging out with Jared Kushner and Steve Whitkoff this weekend?
Starting point is 00:46:07 Like, who was there in Miami? The Russians, right? You had Kirill Dimitriov and Ushkav and all of the top Russians were in Palm Beach while Donald Trump was in Miami. You don't think they were on the phone together. You don't think Trump and the Russians were speaking back channeling that then I've got something to sell you, okay? Even if they weren't, Kushner and Witkoff were delivering messages. You don't think that Putin knows that one of the ways to endear himself to Donald Trump, is to talk about, you know, look, we've got our area, Europe's ours. We're going to give you
Starting point is 00:46:44 Greenland. We're going to give you that that's for you. And Xi Jinping has a, you don't think that that was taking place. Then again, let's talk about what really goes on behind the scenes and these conversations. I mean, look, this was a post from yesterday from Whitkoff. Over the last two days in Florida, the Russian special envoy, there's that word, special envoy, right? Don't you think I mean, where's my special envoy to Greenland? You don't think? You don't think that's how he thinks? I've got such a psychological profile.
Starting point is 00:47:18 I'm telling you that's how the guy thinks. Over the last two days, the Russian special envoy, Kareel Dmitri, have held productive and constructive meetings with the American delegation to advance Trump's peace plan on Ukraine. The American delegation included special envoy, Whitkoff, Kushner, and White House staff member, Josh Grunbaum. Russia remains fully committed to achieving peace in Ukraine. Russia highly values the efforts and support of the United States to resolve the Ukrainian conflict
Starting point is 00:47:45 and reestablish global security. Just think about that dystopian paragraph right there. First off, the Ukrainian conflict. You mean Russia's invasion of Ukraine, reestablish global security? You mean the ones that Russia breached by invading Ukraine? Russia remains committed to achievements. At all times, Ukraine has agreed to a ceasefire. Russia is the one who doesn't.
Starting point is 00:48:11 We played for you the clips of Putin, of Lavra, of Dmitria, of Yushkov, of the Russian ambassadors to various countries like UK. They're the one saying that they need all of Donbos and all of eastern Ukraine, areas that they have not conquered militarily, that they need to finish their quote-unquote special operation of denazification. That's what they keep on saying. They also refer to the European leaders as. Pigs and Lavrov has said, we're currently in World War III right now.
Starting point is 00:48:44 That's what Sergei Lavrov, basically the number two in Russia is saying. So this is nonsense, but this to me, with those other factors, explains the Greenland statements that are coming out. This is how it perfectly. This is exactly how Trump sees the world. Brett, I want to get your take on it. We got to go to break. But when we come back, I want to get your perspective on that.
Starting point is 00:49:05 Let's talk CBS. Let's talk this deranged turning points USA event. A reminder, hit subscribe. We're on our way to 6 million subscribers. Let's try to hit it this month. Also, check out Midasplus.com. That's our substack. That's one of the ways we've grown.
Starting point is 00:49:22 And when you see what CBS is doing, that Midasplus.com substack, it's more important than ever. Let's take our last quick break of the show. Christmas parties, holiday dinners, late night gift wrapping with a glass of Degnog, it's the season for celebration. Just don't forget the Zbiotics pre-alcohol probiotic drink. Zbiotics pre-alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Here's how it works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. It's a buildup of
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Starting point is 00:53:42 seek website for details restrictions and important safety information let's go shout out to our sponsors links in description of the youtube and the audio use the links use the codes if there's an exit survey let them know he sent you real quick benji behind the scenes folks brett and i have been exchanging messages he got a little bit jealous this was a This was a Jordy ad sweep episode. I got jealous that last week, Brett did all the ads. So let us know, I guess, we're a little competitive. How dare you?
Starting point is 00:54:11 Let's know who's better at the ads. Benji, where to next? Why don't we talk briefly about this deranged Republican turning point USA event? It's worth highlighting some of it so that our audience is aware like what's going on there. A lot of it was like different Republican factions fighting with, each other, calling each other conspiracy theorists. You had J.D. Vance there as like trying to basically be what the heir apparent to Charlie Kirk. Just so you all remember, obviously, Turning Point was run by Charlie Kirk. It's now run by his widow Erica. There was like a lot of Freudian slips
Starting point is 00:54:53 or intentional Freudian slips there. One after the next, after the next. Definitely one after the next, after the next. So let me just show you what went down. This one's not a Freudian slip. This was J.D. Vans, just being utterly racist and misusing the term Freudian slip. And he's like, yeah, Minneapolis is Bogadishu. Here, play this clip. And in the meantime, what are the Democrats offering you in the meantime? I got to say, ladies and gentlemen, they are not sending their best. Omar Fatei was Ilyan Omar's candidate for mayor of Mogadishu. What? I mean, Minneapolis.
Starting point is 00:55:35 Little Freudian slip there. He's like the most vile creature ever. I'll talk more about him in a moment. Here he says that in the U.S., because of Donald Trump, this is what everybody was focused on, right? This is, he says, the big accomplishment of the Trump regime, you don't have to apologize for being white anymore. he says. Here, it's great. In the United States of America, you don't have to apologize for being white anymore. Guys literally married to an Indian woman named Usha Vance. Like, I just wonder what her family thinks about all of this. And by the way, when J.D. Vance met her, he was a different
Starting point is 00:56:15 human being, too, not this personality. Like, you all know the different personalities of J.D. Vance. He grew up. He said he was gay. Thought he was a gay guy. He had three different names throughout his life. And then he's like, ah, I'm not gay anymore, right? And then he says that he was this Appalachia working class guy. And he grew up like in the suburbs by Cincinnati and he was net. But this is all thing. I'm an Appalachia poor guy.
Starting point is 00:56:40 It's not really accurate. And I'm an anti-Trumper. And throughout all of these periods of times, he like changed his names and changed his identities. And now he went from saying that he was gay and not named J.D. Ben. Just think about that. to now he goes, he's anti-gay, and he's like a white supremacist, like, J.D. Vance. Like, that's how he behaves. Like, like, that's his new thing, basically.
Starting point is 00:57:04 Yeah, I mean, you, that J.D. Vance speech, he wouldn't have to rewrite it if he was speaking at a clan rally. I mean, that's essentially what it turned into with him on the stage. And I think it goes to show you, you know, the ways that, you remember, these Turning Point USA events, it really is playing to the base of the Republican Party. And it really shows who they are that J.D. Vance thinks that this is the person he has to be in order to court these people. people. And I said this on an episode a few weeks back, at least, that there was this power struggle happening in the Republican Party right now, because I think they really are starting to look beyond Donald Trump right now and try to figure out what does the Republican Party
Starting point is 00:57:39 actually look like. And so there is a civil war happening within the Republican Party. And you see people like J.D. Vance, he thinks the future of the party isn't going, ultra-white nationalist, ultra-racist, just be the most despicable, hateful person, try to ride off Donald Trump's coattails in that regard and then take it even further, then you have some people pushing back against that and saying, no, we should embrace actual conservative ideals. And then there's this whole civil war that's going on between like Ben Shapiro and Megan Kelly and all these people. You know, I find them all like wholly uninteresting, but I find this dynamic of this infighting that's happening right now in the Republican Party to be interesting and something that is
Starting point is 00:58:18 newsworthy. And that's what we're seeing right out there. And like everything J.D. Van said, because they don't have any accomplishments that they could be hyping people up on. What have they actually done for people? Nothing. They've not done anything. They've screwed over their own voters, in fact. And so he just has to keep going back to the racism.
Starting point is 00:58:36 Just keep going back. Keep going back. So there was this clip also where he's talking about Representative Jasmine Crockett and once again goes back to the racism. And Jasmine Crockett. Oh, Jasmine Crockett. The record speaks for its...
Starting point is 00:58:53 self. She wants to be a senator, though her street girl persona is about as real as her nails. It's just disgusting. I mean, he clearly just wants to be like a podcaster or something. Go go be a right-wing podcaster. Say your evil shit. Stop running the country because you're not good at that. But sorry, Ben, go. I was going to say like, look, whatever. issues you're going through with your identity right whatever you know issues are about his sexuality whatever he's going through whatever that is right like he's morphed like a chameleon into three freaking people and it's like with all of these people like you could be you like just go in your private life and be you and just be happy and let other people be happy
Starting point is 00:59:49 why do all these people who are hiding whatever it is that they're hiding feel that they need to like screw over everybody who just wants to go about living their life, you know? And, you know, my neighbor heard me say this. I talked about it in a video earlier today also, and my neighbor said this really resonated me, it resonated to me, Ben. And I said, yeah, I think it's true. I'm like, sometimes you just have to look at these people and call it out for what it is
Starting point is 01:00:16 evil. Like there are just some evil people among us. bad humans. Why do they do what they do? Because they're evil and they want to see you suffer. You know how you wake up and you're like, what can I do to better this world? I have a limited time to be alive and I want to contribute and help and try to make people smile, right? There are people who just wake up and go, I hate this. I'm evil and I want to hurt people every day. And that's what this Trump regime has collected, like evil, bad people who want to hurt and inflict pain so that whatever suffering that they're going through, others can feel it as well versus all of us living happy. And I know that doesn't get disgust enough, but I think that is. And by the way, Don Jr. said, we're not even the Republican Party anymore.
Starting point is 01:01:12 At the Republican event, he's like, yeah, the Republican Party's dead. It's just MAGA. Do we have Don Jr. saying that? Let's play this clip. The rhinos. You see the manufactured attacks on JD, myself, my father, anyone who understands that this isn't the Republican Party anymore. It's the America First Party. It's the Make America Great Again Party. And we are not going back. Then they bring on Nikki Minaj as their guest. Nikki Minaj is speaking with Erica Kirk, whose husband was assassinated, was killed, right?
Starting point is 01:01:55 And Nikki Minaj, you know, and this just shows you, you know, just these people, like, do they even, like, listen to what it is that they're saying? So the first thing that Nikki Minaj, Erica Kirk, and this crowd is doing on stages, Nikki Minaj says the following about Governor Newsom. him new scum and she says we're going to have to clean up that scum tread lightly y'all realize she's threatening the life in my opinion of a California governor at an event with the wife of someone who was killed and the crowd is clapping for her threats that in my opinion can only be perceived as a threat to the life of the governor of California you tell me how you perceive it, but play this clip. Mr. Newsom.
Starting point is 01:02:47 Dear Newskum, we don't have a problem cleaning up the scum if we have to. Please tread lightly. That's what I would say to Gabby Pooh. You know, it's why I say these are actually evil people. Like, it's almost like a parody of the bad guy or the bad gals, you know, in these movies, like, who even talks like that, right? You're at an event.
Starting point is 01:03:19 You're in front of younger people, right? Like, it's a, I mean, I teach. I'm a law professor. I speak to young people and undergrads. Like, I speak, like, it would never cross my mind in a group of young people. They know, Dan, no scum, dear scumbag. Tread lightly, you scumbag. You know what we do with people like, you scum?
Starting point is 01:03:40 What are you doing? I mean, who conducts, themselves in this way. And then they're so deranged. The language that they use all the time is so violent that they can't even like get through a sentence without being reflective. Like Nikki Minaj then refers to J.D. Vance as the assassin in front of Erica Kirk. And Erica Kirk's like, that's okay. She's a woman of God. She's a woman of God. So it's okay that she says, assassin where my husband would. Watch this. And you have amazing role. models like the
Starting point is 01:04:15 assassin JD Vance, our vice president. And when I say that, hmm. I, trust me, there's nothing new under the sun that I have not heard, so you're fine.
Starting point is 01:04:36 Yes, we did. I love you. you have to laugh about it truly i have been called every single thing and you know what god is so good you let it roll right off your back and this is what's so beautiful about this moment because if the internet wants to clip it who cares i love this woman she's an amazing woman she has a soul and a heart for the lord you love this woman you love this woman lord god that's because that's That's what they go back to Lord God, Jesus, Guns, Jesus, Lord God, guns, Jesus, Lord God.
Starting point is 01:05:19 Don't worry about the deranged stuff that we're doing to you, which to the extent people are religious out there, this would go against anybody's, what do you do that you think God and Jesus is for this behavior of taking away people's health care? And well, Ben, you got to look at though what, you know, why they're invoking God, right? Why they invoke Jesus. All the things that they do here are no,
Starting point is 01:05:42 different than what televangelists do every single day. The model that they're that they are following for these turning point USA events are not political rallies and they're not political events. It's the model of the megachurch down to the grift. And that is what they are doing as they put these events on. It's where the theatrics come from. It's where the language comes from. It's why they are willing to forgive or empathize with anybody who uses the most horrific language. so long as they are on their side and attack the other side as demonic and attack the other side for small differences of opinion every single time. And so the language is deliberate. It is manipulative and it is specifically designed to invoke this kind of the inner, like,
Starting point is 01:06:32 religiosity of people in that crowd. That's where it's playing from. And then ultimately, the end goal is basically give us your money. So there was this other Freudian, and slip that happened at this event where Erica Kirk, she was like honoring a student. And she was saying she reminded him of Charlie Kirk. And then she goes, oh, you know, you also, you have just like Charlie did, you have such a great grift. You're an incredible grifter.
Starting point is 01:06:58 And then she catches, you know, what she was saying. And it was this very cringy moment. But in a way, the truth slipped through as to what this movement here is all about. Watch this. Despite the devastating loss of Charlie, Lily Kirk, my incredible husband at UVU, Caleb has persisted with the same grift, excuse me, gift, grit, it has been a long day. Trust me, you're not a grifter, honey. It's all good.
Starting point is 01:07:31 Trust me, you're not a grifta, honey. Trust me. Trust me, you're not a grifta. Not a grifta, baby boy. What are we what are we watching? Yeah, exactly. And you know who sees Erica up there and is like, you know what the country needs is more, more of this is CBS is Barry Weiss. And I know you wanted to talk about that segment, Ben, the 60 Minutes segment over there. Oh, boy. Where do you want to start there? I guess we'll start with Barry Weiss at CBS.
Starting point is 01:08:01 And we're wanting to prop up people like Erica Kirk. What was it? A week ago, two weeks ago. They promoted the Erica Kirk event like it was their Super Bowl. And more people watch Midas Touch videos every day by far than watch that. And that was like their biggest event. And it was just really weird too. Like Erica Kirk couldn't like even answer any question.
Starting point is 01:08:23 Like there was the one good question, which was like, will you condemn Donald Trump's political violence as well? And then she gave a bunch of word salad. We showed that clip before. But CBS has the rights to 60 minutes, the revered award winning show. We all grew up at 60 Minutes. You know, and CBS in general was the gold standard of news, right? I mean, there was NBC and ABC and, but CBS to me, when you would say which one has this
Starting point is 01:08:55 history of straight news that was always, you know, just kind of cutting edge, you would say CBS and you would say 60 minutes. Like, that was it. And so we all know that Donald Trump sued CBS and Paramount over former. Vice President Kamala Harris doing an interview with 60 Minutes and that Donald Trump didn't like the way like a segment was edited, so he sued for billions of dollars. And then CBS, one of these billionaire heirs who used to own Paramount, wanted to sell the company to another billionaire heir to Skydance. And so CBS settled the Trump lawsuit. They then got FCC approval
Starting point is 01:09:37 of the merger of Paramount CBS, which sold to Skydance. And then they installed Barry Weiss as their new head. And Barry Weiss has been turning it into like, like, like, even like a weirder version of Fox, like boring Fox. Like Fox is obviously state regime media, but they're so clownish and cartoonishly villainous that you could be like, I guess that's entertaining in like a disgusting way. But like you have to call out the propaganda. Like Barry Weiss has turned CBS into like the most boring version of state regime. It's all horrific. Let me be very clear.
Starting point is 01:10:12 So I guess that's that's their lane, Fox but more boring. And so CBS was supposed to air this segment, you all know, about the conditions of Seacott, the terrorist detention center, which is like a concentration camp in El Salvador. The Trump regime sent Venezuelan migrants to Seacot, where they were physically tortured, sexually abused, experience, you know, like suffocated, like experience. like the worst of worst conditions there. And it was an expose on that. CBS in 60 Minutes, their editorial teams that still care
Starting point is 01:10:52 and try to do the good work, despite all the headwinds. They reached out to the Trump regime. Hey, you want to comment, you want to be involved with this. Ignored, ignored, ignored, ignored. Went through five levels of review. 60 minutes, very diligent, right? Get this long history. Trump regime doesn't respond.
Starting point is 01:11:11 They advertise that they're about to air it. And then like two or three hours before it goes on TV, it gets pulled. It gets canceled. And it turns out Barry Weiss canceled it because she was worried about the Trump regime criticism. And the way Barry We tried to say, ah, it was actually, we wanted to get Stephen Miller's voice in there. We call them migrants. Maybe we shouldn't call the people migrants.
Starting point is 01:11:33 And maybe we needed more of the Trump regime side in it. And we have to go through some more edits. And then all the people who actually worked on this inside. 60 minutes, the people who still care about journalism was like, this thing's been ready to go, it's been vetted in every level. One of the reporters who was on this segment, she issued a statement saying, this is absolutely crazy at this point. And, you know, it intrigues me is probably not the right word, but it's fascinating. You know, Barry Weiss, her career after New York Times, right, took off on substack, you know, and she parlayed that ultimately into then taking over this revered CBS
Starting point is 01:12:14 and destroying it, right? Like she actually was cutting edge being on substack, but it's wild that she then did that, then took over legacy, kind of trashed her own substack, in my opinion, to then ultimately destroy a legacy property. And now it's dead. It's got zero credibility, right? It's an arm of the Trump regime, in my opinion, and the opinion of most people. It's like, you can't trust anything they're saying. And so it's sad because I like 60 minutes. I like their reporting.
Starting point is 01:12:47 There's a place for that really good reporting right now. In addition to independent news like minus, they're trash now. Trash. Yeah, it's really upsetting. And, you know, once you make moves like this, it really taints everything else that the network does going forward. And then you're always wondering in the back of your head. if something was said to them, if they're doing something to try to protect the Trump administration. And here, that seems to be exactly what they're doing by pulling this episode the way they pulled it.
Starting point is 01:13:16 It's just so unusual. But in the Trump world, I guess it is kind of typical at this point. We've seen all of these legacy stations capitulate. We've seen it with ABC. We've seen it with CBS. And it just keeps happening over and over and over. Nobody wants to stand up to these people. And we see Trump kind of continuously issuing these sorts of threats, especially as there's this pending deal right now with Paramount and trying to buy Warner Brothers Discovery. And you see Donald Trump making comments on social media saying, oh, I thought I liked those new owners of Paramount. But I guess not.
Starting point is 01:13:52 I guess that they're actually my enemies. You know, he's making all these statements in order to try to threaten people because they know that ultimately none of the agencies in the Trump regime are actually independent the way they were supposed to be. We saw Brendan Carr, the FCC, say that out loud, that he does not view the FCC to be an independent agency just days ago. And so they know that they're going to need Donald Trump's sign-off in order to do any sort of business moves they want to make more money,
Starting point is 01:14:17 to do these mergers, to acquire companies. And so, you know, when you have somebody running the company who's like a Trump-friendly voice, you then have somebody making decisions that's in the best interests of them trying to get done what the executives of the company want to get done. And I think that's what we're seeing in this situation. I think it's no surprise that the topic of this segment that was axed by Barry Weiss was
Starting point is 01:14:42 about Seacott, was about the cruel and unusual and inhumane treatment of the migrants at these torture facilities that they have in El Salvador. And I think it's very telling of the direction that the network is going. You know, I think a lot of people sounded the alarm when Barry Weiss took over saying that this is not going to be good. I think a lot of people were like, oh, what do you have to worry about here? What do you have to worry about here? I think the same thing happened when Elon Musk took over Twitter back in the day. A lot of people said, oh, what do you have to worry? It's going to be the same. No, these people are taking over these companies, and they're being put in these positions
Starting point is 01:15:13 for a reason. They're being put in these positions so that they could control the flow of information from the oligarchs to the people and make sure that it's a regime-approved content that is getting to the people, whether that's via social media or whether that is via traditional means. like cable television or traditional broadcast television. And, you know, that's why independent media I think right now is more important than ever. That's why I always try to support all the independent creators out there in addition to us, of course.
Starting point is 01:15:43 That's why we're grateful for your support of independent media here because the thing about independent media is we're independent. We got no one answer for answer to or answer for, right? And so we're going to continue to tell the truth as best we can to track down sources as best we can to continue to build our team. So I want to thank you all for your support because, frankly, right now in this moment, it matters more than ever.
Starting point is 01:16:04 So, I mean, thank you to everybody on YouTube who continues to buy memberships to support us. Thank you to everybody who joins our substack at Midasplus.com. That is such a huge way to help us, and we, you know, do great work there and exclusive pieces and daily newsletters from Ron Filipkowski. So definitely check it out at Midasplus.com. Thanks for listening to the Midas Touch podcast, I hear or on audio, you know, and subscribing to this YouTube channel. Those are all free things right there that you could do to help support and grow this independent movement. So from the bottom of my heart, and I'm sure I'm speaking for my
Starting point is 01:16:35 brothers here, thank you so much. And let's continue to build independent platforms because frankly, as I think we saw from the numbers of what they tried to do with that Erica Kirk event, that's CBS the other day, people aren't buying that crap, right? People don't want to watch that. And we have a real opportunity right now to continue to grow. And I feel like in many ways we are already, at least in the digital sphere, way bigger than they are. But I think we have so much more to go right now. And I think this is the moment where we could really, really, really, really make independent media the key thing that we need at this time, thanks to your help.
Starting point is 01:17:10 So thank you. Are we, Jordy, is Jordy taking it away? Shout out to the Midas Mighty! Against the fascists we sing our song We will get it right whenever Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber for our substack at Midasplus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski,
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