The MeidasTouch Podcast - More Trump Crimes Exposed and More MAGA Implosions

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Starting point is 00:01:26 The January 6th committee has released dozens of its deposition transcripts as it gets ready to publish its final report. Have you read the depositions of these insurrectionist, traitor cowards who plead the fifth to the most basic questions. What's your name? Fifth. What's your age? Fifth.

Starting point is 00:01:50 Are you associated with this group? Fifth, fifth, fifth. It is humiliating, embarrassing. These MAGA extremists are cowards. We will break it down. Meanwhile, the MAGA Republican Party has prepared its pre-rebuttal. Like a little tongue twister there. The MAGA Republican Party has prepared its pre-rebuttal, like a little tongue twister there. The MAGA Republican Party has prepared its pre-rebuttal or pre-buttle to the January 6th report. Pre-buttle.

Starting point is 00:02:13 Say that five times fast. The pre-buttle to the January 6th report where the Republicans, get this, praise Donald Trump for his decisive action on January 6th. And they blame what actually took place on January 6th. Get this, this is from the Republican Party, Brett and Jordy and all the Midas Mighty out there. They blame it on the Capitol Police and Nancy Pelosi and Black Lives Matter. They're the ones, according to the Republicans,

Starting point is 00:02:39 who are responsible. They prepared a report with this. It's like doing a counter report to 9-11. The MAGA Republican Party is straight up a bunch of freaking maniacs. Let's talk about it, folks. Earlier in the week, the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee voted to release Trump's 2015 to 2020 tax returns to the public after a three-year court battle. And before releasing all the returns, the committee released two separate reports which contained summaries. One of the summaries showed that Trump was not under a mandatory audit as he claims.

Starting point is 00:03:18 Surprise! Donald Trump lies about freaking every single freaking thing. And the other showed that he did not really pay his taxes and he engaged in numerous financial chicanery, which looks very, very, very illegal. Surprise! Everything he does is a crime. Surprise! Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Zelensky made a surprise visit to Washington, D.C. this Wednesday, meeting with President Biden in the White House first and then giving a primetime address before a joint session of Congress. A historic, courageous speech praised, rightfully so, by the democracy-loving world, but

Starting point is 00:04:00 not Putin's Republican Party. Many Republicans and Fox and the right-wing echo chamber use this as an opportunity to spread Russian propaganda and attack President Zelensky in some of the most grotesque, weird, and despicable terms. You know, grotesque? Grotesque is the term for today's MAGA Republican Party. Speaking of which, who is MAGA Republican Congressman-elect George Santos? I mean, for real, who is this guy? Is he even George Santos? Is he George Devalder? Is he Santos Devalder? Who is this person? We previously reported about him

Starting point is 00:04:47 on the last podcast that everything he said about his life was apparently a lie. His college, the jobs he claimed he worked, the nonprofit he claimed he was affiliated with, the residence that he claims he lives in, properties which he claims he owned, all lies. But he seems to lie about even more things that we're learning about as well, like the fact that his mother was Jewish. That seems like it was a lie. He lied that his mother was in the South Tower and survived 9-11. That seems to be a lie. He lied that his grandparents were Holocaust survivors. That seems to be a lie. He lied that he had four employees that. That seems to be a lie. He lied that he had four employees that were victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting.

Starting point is 00:05:34 Seems to be a lie, or even that he had any employees at all. You know, Brett and Jordy, this started as a case of catch me if you can, a little Frank Abagnale Jr. But now it seems a whole lot more like the Manchurian candidate. We'll talk about some of his shady dealings with Russian oligarchs, and we'll break that down on the Midas Touch podcast. I refuse to give him the Frank William Abagnale Jr. mantra over there. I absolutely refuse. That's one of my favorite movies of all time. Catch me if you can. He is no Frank William Abagnale Jr., absolutely not. MAGA Republican Senator Josh Hawley keeps talking about porn and Democrats keep getting things done working for the American people in the new omnibus spending bill introduced by Democrats. Democrats have implemented critical employment protections for people during pregnancy,

Starting point is 00:06:23 funding for the January 6th prosecutions the electoral count reform act is in there aid for ukraine and more this is the midas touch podcast i'm ben mycellus joined by brett and jordy mycellus welcome back there young jordy young jedi jordy let's go happy to be back. Like I said, when I came back from my long, very long honeymoon, I absolutely loved this show more than anything. So to be here with the brothers, to be here with the Midas Mighty, it means the world to me. Let's get into it, folks. Let's dive in. Brett's on mute. The techie of the brothers is on mute. Always. It's always Brett on mute.

Starting point is 00:07:02 Brett's the... Let me tell you why, though. Let me defend myself before I get all the attacks from everybody right now. It's because I am also simultaneously producing the show, which people don't see the behind-the-scenes work that goes into producing it. And so to produce it, I got to click things. I got to tap things. And so I don't want the listener to be – I don't want their ears to be assaulted by me doing all that. But I got to say, the Santos guy – did you mention Ben? He's our hometown Congress person. It's where we grew up. He's the guy. We'll get into it. But this story just keeps getting more and more and more bizarre. And I

Starting point is 00:07:38 hope at a certain point, I hope the guy resigns. I hope maybe the AG could step in or the DOJ could step in because what we're witnessing right now is fraud on a seriously ridiculous level. And it may have national security implications. And we will get into that when we speak about George Santos. Ben, where should we begin today? I think we've got a lot to talk about. Let's begin where I kind of ended. I want to show this video. So Donald Trump is flipping out about this new omnibus spending bill. And the real reason why he's flipping out is because it actually has the funding in there for special counsel Jack Smith and for the other January 6th prosecutions. Donald Trump looks

Starting point is 00:08:17 horrible on this video, and it's him calling Mitch McConnell a Democrat. Okay, we don't accept Mitch McConnell as a Democrat. But when Mitch McConnell is now labeled a rhino, when Mitch McConnell is labeled a Democrat, that just goes to show you that this MAGA party, this MAGA Republican party, is just this mutation of just something entirely different, something entirely weird, a more virulent, dangerous strain of QAnon cultish weirdness. Brett, just play the clip of Trump today. Mitch McConnell, who is an absolute disaster, by the way, must not be allowed to waste this golden opportunity. He's more of a Democrat than a Republican. What he's doing to this party is incredible. And what he's doing to our nation is incredible. He just says things, just says words. Mitch McConnell is definitely much more like a Democrat

Starting point is 00:09:24 than a Republican. What are you talking about? What is it? Yeah, Ben, you know, he's a Democrat, you know, like Bill Barr is a Democrat, you know, he's, he's a Democrat, uh, like, uh, you know, like all, like all these other Democrats. Christopher Wray. Christopher Wray. Trump appoints. That's what we talked about it on the other podcast. Like whenever they go to this ridiculous conspiracy laden Twitter files things things and they start talking about the people who were on the emails, like whether they are the political appointees within the Department of Justice and the FBI or even at the top, Christopher Wray or Bill Barr. It's like these are all people that Trump appointed and hired.

Starting point is 00:10:02 These are your people. What are you talking about? These are all your hires. I mean, you can try to overcomplicate issues and that's sometimes what they want you to do, but that's why you just got to go. You hired them. They're your people. You were the president then. It was your government, the government. You were the government then, Donald Trump. You crazy? Yeah, Biden was the campaign at that point. And the thing that I like about that clip though, I mean, the clip almost made me vomit, honestly. Trump honestly looks disgusting. He looks more deranged than ever. The guy's like melting before our eyes.

Starting point is 00:10:38 He's a really sick, sick, sicko. But the thing that I actually like about that clip and the reason why I want to get that clip everywhere, why I want everyone to see it, is because I love the wedge currently that's being driven between these MAGA Republicans. This is the problem. They all kind of grift each other. They all actually hate each other. They all really don't believe each other's bullshit. They sometimes do. But the people in charge at large kind of don't, and they're all trying to take their sides right now in this MAGA civil war.

Starting point is 00:11:03 And this MAGA civil war is playing out right now between our eyes. And the way it's happening is super interesting to me. Who would have ever thought that on one side you had Lauren Boebert and Matt Gates, and on the other side you had Marjorie Taylor Greene and Kevin McCarthy? And I guess Mitch McConnell might be somewhere, there might be some Venn diagram overlap between Mitch McConnell might be somewhere, you know, there might be some Venn diagram overlap between Mitch McConnell and the Boebert-Gates contingency here? No, no, no. The Senate is in a whole different one. So you have the inner Congress, and then you have Republican senators versus Republican Congress members. And the Congress members are calling the Republican senators like rhinos. And then the Republican senators are calling the Congress member Republicans like

Starting point is 00:11:50 insane and like childish and weird. So you have that going on like in one direction. And then in the other direction, as you mentioned, you've got the Boebert Gates lined up against the Kevin McCarthy, Marjorie Taylor Greene. And Marjorie Taylor Greene has just revealed herself like she just wants the committee position desperately. That's what she wants. Honestly, if I were like a MAGA person, I would be so disappointed with Marjorie Taylor Greene, wouldn't you? To me, if you're in it, that's a sellout right there. You're going to join Kevin McCarthy. You're going to join Rhino Kevin McCarthy and not deranged Lauren Boebert and all these other crazy people on that end.

Starting point is 00:12:31 That's what you're going to do just for your committee position. It's really interesting. And this is why I try not to predict too many things on the show, unless I'm kind of more certain about what's going to go on. Because if you were like, okay, a million dollars, in the MAGA Civil War, who teams up with Matt Gaetz? Would it be Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, or would it be Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz? Obviously, Marjorie Taylor Greene. They've been touring. They've been best friends. No doubt in my mind. But here we see this interesting scenario

Starting point is 00:12:59 where they're on opposite ends. They're attacking each other on Twitter now. They're attacking each other on TV, on these right-wing networks. It's really, really incredible to see. Meanwhile, that omnibus bill that Trump put his whole power behind, and so did even people like Elon Musk who ran a Twitter poll, like that's supposed to be representative of the American population, and said, see, people have spoken. It's ridiculous. But the bill passed easily in the Senate, 68 to 29, and that bill funds the government through most of 2023. So we don't have to have all these temporary spending bills. I think it's interesting kind of strategy here between McConnell and Schumer, who they both

Starting point is 00:13:37 need to agree on this bill for it to get across the finish line, where McConnell even knows that if they did not pass this bill before the holiday, when the new Congress comes in with Kevin McCarthy, they would not fund the government. So this was also by McConnell. This was a big FU to Kevin McCarthy. I'm going to fund the government. I'm going to fund the Department of Justice so they could do what they have to do. And Kevin, you're not going to have a say in this, buddy. Sorry, because the government's going to be funded. There aren't going to be more votes on this sort of thing. And there were a lot of other stuff in the omnibus bill too, which I think is important to highlight. I mean, obviously no spending bill is perfect. It's a mashup of a

Starting point is 00:14:17 lot of various different needs from throughout the country. It's never going to be perfect, but this bill includes some interesting things like the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which prohibits employment practices that discriminate against making reasonable accommodations for qualified employees affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or other related medical conditions, which is a huge win for pregnant and postpartum women's rights. It secures $600 million for Jackson, Mississippi's water so they could rebuild their infrastructure there. It includes the Electoral Countout Act reform, which tries to prevent another January 6th from happening by making it clear that you are to count the votes as it happened. You are to count the actual electors as it happened. No games. And it also provides more- It limits the ability to object as well, and only the most rare of

Starting point is 00:15:07 circumstances can you try to do what the Republicans did here by objecting. What else does it do, Brett? It extends support for Ukraine. It increases our military spending, which we probably don't need it to increase our military spending, but it does. It increases our domestic spending. And now it's going through the House where it's expected to get through the House now, which is one of the reasons why they passed it now, and it should be on Biden's desk soon. So that's important. Keep our funding for Ukraine going, keep our funding for important domestic issues going, add some important new things like the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, like the Electoral Count Reform Act. And

Starting point is 00:15:46 Kevin McCarthy, like I said, would not have let this slide. So good thing we got it through now. This is big. It's going to prevent a lot of chaos just for the next few months. It's a great point that you raised there, Brett, that it really is Mitch McConnell and others in that small group of Senate Republicans totally taking the power away from Kevin McCarthy and Marjorie Taylor Greene and basically saying, we're funding this as much as we can through 2024, basically. Let's just keep it going as long as possible. We can't forget about places like Jackson, Mississippi. I mean, it's important that we're able to rebuild the infrastructure in these places and make sure that problems in

Starting point is 00:16:28 areas like Jackson, Mississippi don't occur again. I mean, what are we as a country if we don't have clean drinking water? It's like the fundamental thing. And the fact that that was allowed to happen and the fact that we haven't heard much really else about it, I think is incredibly disturbing. You know, I was watching, who's that guy, Kramer on CNBC or whatever. Jim Kramer. Yeah. They're always wrong about everything. He's become a parody of himself. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:16:56 But they were talking about Tesla and they were talking about like one of the things that like those kind of Republicans on the shows, they were like talking crap about California's electrical grid. And Brett, as you talk right there about, you know, just like basic things like water, it's like California's electric grid held. Okay. Like, like our governor in California, Newsom did what governors are supposed to do, which address the emergency situation. And we avoided serious rolling blackouts here. You compare that to what happened in Texas, where literally the power grid collapsed and people actually died. And then you get that kind of gaslighting. And when Kramer was doing that gaslighting, it's like, well, everyone knows that California, no,

Starting point is 00:17:42 they're wrong about literally everything they say these people. And they view proper measures and responsibility of actually trying to fix the problem as negative things and they try to attack you for it. Like when Newsom says, okay, there might be surge power usage between these hours. So if we could just cut down on those hours, they go communist, look, look how weak the power grid is. I'm going to run more power. I'm going to run more power. What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you thinking? It's ridiculous.

Starting point is 00:18:19 And Brett, so while you said you don't like to make some of these bold predictions about what the civil war is going to look like, the one that we could always make based on objective data is that the MAGA Republicans will always make based on objective data is that the MAGA Republicans will always exhibit at least these four characteristics, chaos, crisis, confusion, and craziness. And the incoming House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, did an incredible job at a recent press conference addressing that. And I've really been loving how Hakeem Jeffries has been handling everything. It's really cool to have a leader too, who just pushes back like that, you know, and that kind of, it's a very 2022 is the best way to describe it. Like, you know, you got these MAGA Republicans in disarray, they say disinformation and boom, Hakeem Jeffries is right

Starting point is 00:19:04 there. Here, Brett, play this clip. Look at what's happening right now. House Republicans are attacking Senate Republicans. Senate Republicans are calling House Republicans silly and immature. The leadership situation is in chaos. Marjorie Taylor Greene is fighting with Lauren Boebert. And George Santos appears to be starring in the sequel to Catch Me If You Can. And it's not even January 3rd. The circus has already come to town. Chaos, crisis, confusion, and craziness. Versus Democrats who deliver for the American people. That's so good. It's a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant clip. It's so good.

Starting point is 00:19:54 And that's what we're going to see more of, Brett. So, so, so, so good. That's somebody who understands, like you said, Ben, that's somebody who understands what it's like to be a politician in 2022. You have to understand those moments. You have to be able to play for the camera like that and play for the internet like that and play for these viral moments like that. It's an incredibly important part of messaging. And finally, I think you see that and you're like, finally, Democrats have a fighter. Democrats have someone who's not allowed to say, these people are crazy. These people are the definition of chaos. When you see him, I think he also has this special quality about him, this charisma. And I could really see big

Starting point is 00:20:31 things in Akeem Jeffries' future. And I'm really excited that he is the incoming leader. That is really, really, really special. Although I am going to knock him for totally stealing our catch me if you can line. I mean, that started with us, buddy. I'm just saying. Well, I think that lots of people watch the Midas Touch podcast. Lots of people watch the videos we do during the day. Jeffrey is a big fan of the podcast. And I'm not saying that, I mean, Jordy, to your point right there, it is an honor when, to the extent politicians who support democracy want to use any of the things we say. Use it, use it, use it, please. I want to talk now though about these January 6th insurrectionists who were deposed

Starting point is 00:21:15 by the January 6th committee. And it seems like, what's the expression? Some of the loudest people wouldn't throw a grape in a food fight or something like that. That's definitely not the expression, but okay. But go for it. I don't know the expression either, but I just know that whatever you said is not a real expression, but please, sorry. Well, the point is, is that some of the loud,

Starting point is 00:21:36 like the loudest- That was a Jay-Z quote. That was very Ari Melba review. You know the type, loud as a motorbike, but wouldn't bust a grape in a fruit fight. Well, that's the quote. Ben did not say that. So let's just be very clear about that i mean i was very close to saying that i mean what i said what did i say i mean we could rely on something about the lunchroom it was weird you know the saying by the esteemed sean carter okay okay okay all right so so people though like

Starting point is 00:22:00 you know alex jones and roger stone and the Arizona GOP chair, Kelly Ward. Remember her? She gave the speech over one of the rallies and she goes, I am ultra mega. And who here is a part of the orange mafia? Are you a member of the Orange Mafia? I mean, this stuff is so weird and so embarrassing and so cringy, but also very, very dangerous. These people want to overthrow our government. He's the leader of the Republican Party in Arizona. It's going, Orange Mafia. How did it come to this, people? How did it come to this, people? How did it come to this? But Ben, the mafia term,

Starting point is 00:22:47 I thought she was maybe being a little facetious about it, calling herself the Orange Mafia. But as you read the transcripts from these depositions, especially as we get to Cassidy Hutchinson's, which was released today on Thursday when we're taping this, her deposition, it really does seem like the MAGA movement and the Republican Party at large is nothing more than an organized crime movement. It is its own mafia with Donald Trump being the mob boss, and it is horrifying how closely it resembles that structure in every single way. Even Marjorie Taylor Greene, when she was talking about how she was trying to get people to vote for Kevin McCarthy, she talked about the five families. And she's like, we've got the five families here.

Starting point is 00:23:29 And we're trying to like, why are you using stop using mafia references. But I want to show our listeners and our viewers this flashback where Trump talked about the type of people who take the Fifth Amendment, played the clip when you have your staff, taking the Fifth Amendment. Play the clip. When you have your staff taking the Fifth Amendment, taking the Fifth so they're not prosecuted, I think it's disgraceful. If you're not guilty of a crime, what do you need immunity for? Pleading the Fifth Amendment. Pleading the Fifth Amendment. Taking the Fifth Amendment. The Fifth Amendment. In the Fifth Amendment. Fifth Amendment. Fifth Amendment. Fifth Amendment, Fifth Amendment. Horrible.

Starting point is 00:24:06 You see, the mob takes the Fifth Amendment. If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment? Have you ever seen anything so corrupt in your life? Have you ever seen a greater embarrassment to our country? Fifth Amendment. Bob. So Donald Trump. So Donald Trump's taking the Fifth Amendment. So in the New York Attorney General's special proceeding that predated the filing of the fraud lawsuit seeking at least $250 million in damages,

Starting point is 00:24:39 Donald Trump was deposed and asked the most basic of questions. What is the appraised value of Trump Tower? What is the appraised value of Trump Tower? What is the appraised value of Bedminster? What is the appraised value of Mar-a-Lago? What's the appraised value of this collection of apartments here? What is the valuation that you attribute to those properties? Donald Trump, fifth, fifth, fifth, fifth, over 400 times to each and every question, Donald Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. And here we look at some of the individuals that the January 6th committee deposed. I mean, Donald Trump didn't sit for a deposition before

Starting point is 00:25:16 the January 6th committee, even though we said, bring it on, because he filed a lawsuit to try to block it because he is incredibly, incredibly cowardly and he just gaslights everyone. But like, let's talk about some of these people like Charlie Kirk, who runs Turning Points USA, all of the bluster and bravado in the world. And he's asked the most basic questions like, Mr. Kirk, how old are you? For those listening just on audio, we have the depositions transcripts posted. Mr. Kirk, how old are you? Answer. On the advice of counsel, I'm invoking my Fifth Amendment right not to testify, and I decline to answer that question. Question.

Starting point is 00:25:50 In what state do you reside, Mr. Kirk? Answer. He did answer this one. I live in Scottsdale. Question. And what is your highest level of education? Answer. On advice of counsel, I'm invoking my Fifth Amendment right not to

Starting point is 00:26:05 testify, and I decline to answer the question. Okay, question. Mr. Kirk, you are a founder and executive director of an entity called Turning Point USA, correct? Answer. On advice of counsel, I am invoking my Fifth Amendment right not to testify, and I decline to answer the question. Come on, the most basic questions. How about we turn to Nick Fuentes, the white supremacist Nazi who was out partying in Mar-a-Lago with Kanye, another white supremacist and Nazis. First off, why do you think Charlie Kirk answered the location question and not the other questions? Where does he draw the line age fifth location okay scottsdale uh where do you work fifth excuse me excuse me my my working theory on that actually is that if he

Starting point is 00:26:53 actually says how old he is now i wish i had that at the top of my head right now maybe we could find that really quick for our listeners um it would make him feel older to an audience where he's trying to corrupt right he's trying to trying to corrupt that young, that young 17, 18, 19, even 16 year old mind. I'm about to upset you though. I'm about to upset you. He's your age. He's 29, which is, he's actually younger than I, than I thought he was. He looks way older than 29 in my opinion. That's a rough 29 coming from a 29 year old. That's all I'm going to say. It is a rough 29. Is the strategy though, Ben, is the strategy that if you're going to plead the fifth selectively, then it's a bit of a tell. If you only plead the fifth for the question that's,

Starting point is 00:27:37 and where were you on January 6th? What did you do? Why did you send those buses on January 6th? How many people were on those buses? Who paid for them? If you wait till those questions to go fifth, fifth, fifth, is that more revealing than if literally the entire time, even for the most basic questions, you're just, yeah, fifth, fifth, fifth, fifth? I don't know is the short answer. The whole thing is really, really, really weird. Sometimes you'll do just a deal in a civil case where you'll basically say, are you going to invoke the fifth on every question? And I'll just send them a list of all of the questions, knowing that they're going to invoke the fifth. But the conduct by them here is completely bizarre. I don't think that, you know, Brett, to your point, is there a strategy

Starting point is 00:28:25 where you, if you just invoke it to literally every single question, when they actually get to the questions that are incriminating, is that just showing that, you know, you won't give the tell that you're more worried about this question than another question. But the January 6th committee knows, you know, the sensitive question. So it's not really fooling anybody. They're just fools. They're just cowards. And they do things like when we go and talk about Roger Stones, where he's like, I most definitely declined to respond to your question based on my Fifth Amendment constitution protections with all due respect. Just substitute the words FU for due respect and respectfully with FU as well. And you can get at what Roger Stone's actually saying here.

Starting point is 00:29:15 It's the kind of exact gaslighting. Go to Nick Fuentes. Nick Fuentes. I was going to say, and Ben, what did Roger Stone answer that to? What was the question that he most definitely declined to respond to? The question was, I'd like to ask you, Mr. Stone, whether you believe that coups are allowed in our constitutional system. Answer, I most definitely declined to answer your question based on my Fifth Amendment constitutional protections with all due respect. Put that one back up, Brett, because I want to go through some of the other questions there too, now that you pointed out. The next question from Congressman Raskin to Roger Stone. Do you believe violent insurrections are allowed in our constitutional system? Answer.

Starting point is 00:29:56 I respectfully decline to answer your question on the basis of my Fifth Amendment rights. Congressman Raskin, do you believe fascist street violence is allowed in our constitutional system? Answer from Roger Stone, I respectfully decline to answer your question based on my Fifth Amendment rights. And look, we can go through all the people, Nick Fuentes and Kelly Ward and John Eastman. The interesting one is the Publix heiress, Julia Fonselli. She just invoked every amendment. Invoke all the amendments. To answer pursuant of the rights afforded to me under the Constitution, including the first, fourth, fifth, and fourteenth amendments.

Starting point is 00:30:39 I mean, it's just the fifth amendment, right, against self-incrimination. Jamie Raskin is like, could you explain that? Like, could you explain what the hell you're even talking about here? Like, how are you invoking, under what premise? And she just kept repeating herself, I am choosing to invoke my first, my fifth, my fourteenth. It's completely different. The Republican Party, like, there were people who used to get, you know, it still happens

Starting point is 00:31:04 today, where they'd get pulled over, get a ticket, and they would refuse to speak to the police because of like this doctrine of like the sovereign government doctrine. And they would, you know, I'm a sovereign citizen, and that there is no government that I respond to. And then they invoke all of these rights that support it. Like that is the modern day Republican Party. And you go through all of these people, again, Kirk, Fuente, Stone, Eastman, Ward. Ward runs the Republican Party in Arizona. In Arizona. And she's doing all this fifth to every question. Really, really, really pathetic. Frankly, really sad. But these people need to be called

Starting point is 00:31:48 out. And again, maybe because I'm doing the videos and doing my own independent reporting all day, I'm not seeing it on large networks. But they're not paying attention to these issues unless I'm missing it. You're not missing it. You're not missing it. Let me just add to that a little bit too, Ben, if you'll let me. So I agree with you. I mean, you go through these statements and to your point, I mean, the GOP at this point, they're a complete joke. I mean, up is down, down is up. They truly don't know what they're doing or who they are. And it's scary. Like I was laughing before when I think we were reading Kelly Ward's statement about the Orange Mafia or whatnot. But when you think about it, it's really scary to have one political party in a two political party system

Starting point is 00:32:34 in this country that's so utterly incompetent yet because, you know, they have these not so secret dealings with these corporate donors and these large wealthy donors and friends, that they're literally stealing from the less fortunate to feed these wealthy donors and corporate donors to continue to have that strong backing. These news outlets, to your point, then don't report on it because of that. Yeah, and I'll add to that. I'll say I've seen some people who have been very strong lately. I think Ari Melber has been very strong lately. I think people like Rachel Maddow have been very, very strong lately. There are a group of people who are doing incredible work. I don't want to discount them. But by and large, I mean, we saw it with the Santos story, which we'll talk about

Starting point is 00:33:19 soon. The biggest story on the planet, first off, it came and props to the New York Times for covering it, but it happened after the election, which is a problem. By the way, also a failure of the Democratic Party in New York of not vetting this people and the candidate for not vetting him. But the next day after this was announced, the cover of Newsday, the local newspaper for Long Island, not one mention. I don't think there was a mention in the entire paper that day about Santos, which is one of the biggest scandals in political history, didn't even make the local paper, which I think is also a product- Newsday didn't cover it? Not the first day, at least. I saw there was an article about it, I think today,

Starting point is 00:33:55 but it was buried in the back of the paper. It wasn't a front page piece. And I have mixed feelings about it because, well, I don't. I think it's messed up that they didn't cover it. But I also think, I'm trying to give them a little bit of credit here, that these local newspapers have been so starved of funds and they're hurting so bad that they often don't have the resources to do the blame on them, although I do blame them for not putting their resources in this, which is arguably the most important story ever in Long Island politics. But I also want to emphasize that I understand that these news bureaus are being absolutely starved right now of funds and are having a lot of difficulty here. In addition to all of the depositions that were released of the traitors, and there was that first tranche of about 34 depositions, mostly of people invoking their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Starting point is 00:34:50 We also got the deposition transcripts of a hero before the January 6th committee who testified over the summer in one of the most blockbuster public testimonies that had taken place, that of Cassidy Hutchinson. She had actually been deposed four times. And her initial depositions, like back in March, were with a Trump lawyer, someone named Stefan Passantino, who runs a law firm called Elections LLC, which gets its funding from Donald Trump's Save America PAC, which is under criminal investigation by the Department of Justice and was mentioned by the January 6th Committee for its nefarious spreading of the big lie. Speaking of organized crime, this is all part of it right here. Utilizing lawyers to coordinate and to try to obstruct witnesses the things that were happening. And she explained what Passantino was saying to her. And she said that Passantino would say things like,

Starting point is 00:36:12 the committee doesn't know what you can and can't recall, Cassidy. So you could basically just say whatever, just say that you don't remember, that's fine. And that's when you give a short and sweet response. And then Hutchinson testified that when she and Passantino first spoke, and she relayed that incident in the presidential limo, and Passantino responded to her and basically said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We don't want to go there. Just keep your answer short, sweet, and simple. Seven words or less. The less the committee thinks that you know, the better. And she explained that it wasn't just that I had Stefan sitting next to me. It was almost like I had Trump looking over my shoulder because I knew in some fashion it would get back to him if I said anything that

Starting point is 00:37:05 he would find disloyal and the prospect of that genuinely scared me you know I'd seen this world ruin people's lives or try to ruin people's career I'd seen how viciously they can be passentino has released a statement denying any wrongdoing um But you're going to believe Trump's lawyer. And in the same statement, he said that he was taking a leave from his law practice as to not be a distraction, which I think often happens when people are in a bit of hot water. I thought some of the other really kind of blockbuster statements from Hutchinson's deposition was that she talked about that she was in communication with Kevin McCarthy almost daily leading up to January 6th and that McCarthy had told her that he felt Mark Meadows was not serving Trump well by making him think that he could still win the election. And McCarthy had said that Trump had told McCarthy that he was aware that he had lost the election. And similarly, Hutchins said that John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence, former director of national

Starting point is 00:38:19 intelligence, had also told her that Mark Meadows was not serving Trump well, since Trump had admitted to him that he had lost the election, but nonetheless was still planning to remain in office, even though he know that he lost. That's really important in what special counsel Jack Smith is going to be doing, because that goes to the intent element. It goes to the mens rea or the mental state that Trump is trying to avoid. Trump is trying to claim his whole defense is going to be, I always thought that I won and I got bad legal advice from my lawyers who were telling me that I won and I relied on them. He's going to throw Eastman under the bus. He's going to throw Jeff Clark under the bus. He's going to throw Giuliani under the bus.

Starting point is 00:39:10 That's his whole defense. But when we hear people like John Ratcliffe saying, no, Trump said this to me, and just for the legal geeks out there, that would come in. That would not be hearsay. The fact that what Hutchinson heard from John Ratcliffe, who heard from Trump, that would be hearsay within hearsay. That would not be able to come in. But John Ratcliffe coming in and testifying and saying that this is what Trump said to me, it would be a statement against a person's interest. And since Trump would be the criminal defendant and would have the opportunity to rebut it, that would not be hearsay.

Starting point is 00:39:54 And that's something that could be introduced to the jury. Same with McCarthy. When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard. When the barbecue's lit, but there's nothing to grill. When the in-laws decide that, actually, they will stay for dinner. Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer. So download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes.

Starting point is 00:40:20 Plus enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart. Groceries that over-deliver. A little hearsay inception, if you will. I just wanted to add, if you're Mark Meadows right now and you are not cooperating, oh boy, you better call your lawyers right now. Because Mark Meadows is as deep shit as you could possibly be. I mean, we've known that for a while,

Starting point is 00:40:46 but now looking through this, we see that Ben Williamson, an aide to former Trump chief Meadows, told Cassidy Hutchinson before her deposition, and listen to this, and once again, straight out of a mob movie, well, Mark wants me to let you know that he knows you're loyal and he knows you'll do the right thing tomorrow and you're going to protect him and the boss. It's almost like it's so on the nose that it's corny that if you wrote it in a mob movie, you'd be like, they don't really speak like that. That's ridiculous. Jordy, what else do you think? No, I think you're spot on. I just want to say this too about Cassidy Hutchinson. I mean, look, she is brave. She is courageous. And in the eye of the actual storm, and that storm being Trump

Starting point is 00:41:35 and Trump's legal team pressuring her to downplay what she knew to be true, she stood up and defied them. Not to make a name for herself, but in the name of democracy and the true rule of law. Think about how scary that must be to be a 20-something-year-old. I think she's 25 when she was working there, 26, and she's going against the literal mafia of the Trump MAGA-ism. It is terrifying. And we say this here all the time at the Midas Touch podcast, and you could disagree if you'd like, but look, unless you're a Steve Bannon or a Giuliani, I don't care if you've worked for Trump. I don't care if you voted for Trump in the past. If you're willing to come on the side of pro-democracy and speak out against the fascism

Starting point is 00:42:19 movement that is Trumpism, that is this MAGA cult, well, I'll welcome you with open arms. And I urge our listeners to do the same. Jordy, speaking about the cult and what they are doing in response to the January 6th committees that's about to release its full findings and its full report, the GOP released its prebuttal, its rebuttal to it, which the very concept of it is you're doing a rebuttal. It's rebuttal to it, which the very concept of it is you're doing a rebuttal to a report that is exposing what took place on January 6th, where one of the things in the executive summary that was released earlier in the week, what was it like three dozen of mostly every witness was a Republican who was called. They showed it. It was staggering when you actually

Starting point is 00:43:05 see the list. I think it was on page 101 to 104 or 105 of the executive summary. For those who have the executive summary, you can see the list of it. And not only were they all Republican, they were all like Trump's inner circle Republicans. And sure, we've highlighted earlier in the show, the people like the Charlie Kirks and the Nick Fuentes and the Alex Jones and the Roger Stones and the Kelly Wards who all invoked the fifth. But there were a lot of people who did testify. For every Roger Stone, you had a Pat Cipollone. For every Charlie Kirk, you had a Patrick Fieldman. For every Alex Jones, you had a Mark Short. For every Kelly Ward, you had a Greg Jacob. For every Nick Fuentes, you had an Eric Hirschman. And it goes on and on and on. But you did

Starting point is 00:44:00 end the crew of people who did testify under penalty of perjury and didn't invoke the fifth called those other people team crazy. And these were all people in Trump's inner circle. Yeah, you got to give the January 6th committee all the props in the world for fighting and stick to it and all their stick-to-itiveness to get all this information. It is brilliant. But all of the people are Republicans. So the fact that you have a Republican member of Congress pre-rebuttal where they blame January 6th on Black Lives Matter, on Nancy Pelosi, they blame it on the police, they blame the Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police. They blame the National Guard and say it is the fault of our troops. This is where MAGA and Republicans,

Starting point is 00:44:55 and we're going to talk about it when we talk about Ukraine as well, where they go into these areas that are so un-American, that are so anti-democracy, that are so dangerous, that are so pro-fascist, that this is where it gets just totally unrecognizable. And here, for them to look at what occurred on January 6th, knowing all they know now, and prepare a report that is kissing Donald Trump's ass, where they literally omit every single thing that Trump did, all of his words and actions, everything except the one word they have is where he goes, go home. And that's it. You know, without any context, they go and they like want people to buy it. And it is so Putin, like it's so dangerous. And it's that piece of it is really unprecedented in American history because you've always had a fringe, but you never had – this is the political party. The Republican political party is endorsing this kind of behavior. Brett, tell us a little bit about the prebuttal. I mean, the prebuttal is disgusting. I mean, the thing is it doesn't go

Starting point is 00:46:17 much more below the surface than what you just described. They blamed the Capitol police. They blamed Nancy Pelosi. They didn't talk about Trump's actions, except they said, but guess what, everybody? He said to go home. And he said, but omitting everything else, it's just full of like, the whole thing is just, it's all lies. And when you actually dig into like the source material that they try to back up their lies with, it doesn't say anything near what they're saying it says whatsoever. The timelines don't even match up. It's so sloppily done. It's purely done in a Putin-esque Kremlin-style disinformation way to just try to inject some other perspective that those people could point to and say, look, they have the truth over here. This is the truth over here. When it's just 100% lies, not deserving of being taken seriously, one iota. And this is what they

Starting point is 00:47:12 do. They just lie and they gaslight. Whatever it is, they're going to counter with the exact opposite of what it is. And they're not only going to go opposite, they're going to go as despicable and in the mud as they possibly can. It's not only that it wasn't a big deal. It's that it's actually Nancy Pelosi's fault and it's actually the police's fault. Black Lives Matter. Let's just bring Black Lives Matter. Let's just bring them in and Antifa. I mean, they go to these just conspiratorial depths, but that is the Republican Party right now. And it's because they embraced the conspiratorial fringe when they embraced Donald Trump and everything he stood for. And until they realize

Starting point is 00:47:51 that, this is going to be who they are for a very long time. And like you said, Ben, we'll talk about it when we get to the Ukraine stuff, because it was on full display during that moment, which was a moment of heroism, which was a moment of bravery, which was such a historic moment for democracy, not just in the United States, but around the world. And to see the reaction of some Republicans and what they tried to do with that moment is beneath contempt. It's absolutely disgusting. I'm excited to speak about it because people didn't even know. You have Don Trump Jr. calling Zelensky an ungrateful international welfare queen. And not only is Don Jr. saying that, that was parroted by lots of Republicans who were talking

Starting point is 00:48:35 about that. You had Tucker Carlson who said that Zelensky had, quote, declared war on Christianity. So you got Don Jr. saying, ungrateful international welfare queen. You got Tucker Carlson saying that Zelensky has now declared war on Christianity. You had Gates and you had Boebert who were sitting there in the audience who were refusing, first off, they refused to stop at the security checkpoint to get into the speech. And when the security, the Capitol Police said, can you come through the metal detector? They said no, and they waved them off. And they just walked by him, walked in there, and then they sat there together and refused to clap, rooted against him. Before the speech, Boebert made a number of derogatory

Starting point is 00:49:28 remarks about Zelensky before. But ultimately, here's the thing, Brett, and you and I were talking about it. It's like, if we're adults in the room and the republicans want to have a debate and claim that there is too much money going to ukraine or if they want to claim that certain money is earmarked for things that it shouldn't be or there needs to be greater oversight over over these weapons systems versus these weapons systems and you want to have a discussion, to me, that's a political discussion that we can have. And frankly, we should have. That's okay. But that's not what the Republicans are doing. They're bad faith actors. They're out there saying, cheering on Putin, calling Zelensky an ungrateful international welfare queen, saying he's declared war on

Starting point is 00:50:26 Christianity, calling it, by the way, we're going to talk about that George Santos. They call Ukraine a totalitarian regime and spreading all of these talking points. And then they go into this realm where it's like, you just want to destroy America. You are just rooting on Putin. And you go to a lot of these discussions. We talk about COVID for a second, right? If you want to have a discussion and say that certain small businesses versus large businesses, should a small business be shut down versus while the large business is open? What type of economic sacrifices should be made versus a lethal, deadly global pandemic that is killing people? If you want to at least have the conversation and say, why is that department store open

Starting point is 00:51:19 versus this small business has to be closed? Why is the local mom and pop shop closed? But that's not the conversation that they are having. They're having a conversation that COVID isn't a real thing, that the plandemic, the pandemic, they call it, was done by like Democrats and part of a conspiracy. And while they say that at the one time, they act like a million deaths isn't real.

Starting point is 00:51:44 And it's like, well, then I can't have an adult conversation because you're not being adults. You want to lock up our top scientists. You want to prosecute Fauci. You claim the CDC just lies to America about everything. Then you rely on CDC data selectively when it benefits you. Now you're a clown show. Now you're a fascist clown show, and we can't have serious adult conversations at a time period where we need serious adult conversations. And you can go through all of these issues. But as Adam Kinzinger said, you know, regarding Boebert, it's like, okay, you don't know what you're talking about with national security. You don't know what you're saying. You're just a loser performative artist. What is this? What are you doing? And that's the thing to me about these MAGA Republicans. They're not serious people, but far from just not being

Starting point is 00:52:37 serious, they are dangerous. They genuinely want to cause harm, the dangers from within that they want to inflict this harm. That is a Ben rant for the ages right there, folks. I applaud you, brother. And let me just add this. So Zelensky, if I'm tracking this right with these ultra-magic Republicans and their outlets, he started out as a Nazi and now he's declared war on Christianity. So I just don't think they're really finding out where to label Zelensky. Well, here's where they're getting all the information from too. They're getting it straight from the Kremlin. What happens on Tucker Carlson's show is legitimately word for word what they pump out on these Kremlin TV stations. And so I know it sounds a little conspiratorial,

Starting point is 00:53:25 but we'll see when we talk about Santos. We've been teasing Santos all episode. Oh, I'm excited to get to him. It's from our hometown. It's crazy. Yeah. It makes me extra mad. It makes me want to go after him even more. But here's the thing. I do think that there is a lot of Russian money and Russian influence in the Republican Party. I think they hide it through nefarious means, as we're going to see with Santos. Oops, I gave away who might be funding him. I know, spoiler alert. But I think this is a huge, huge, huge problem within the Republican Party. And frankly, all the bizarre behavior to me, when you're like, how could these be real human beings? Hockensrazer, the simplest explanation.

Starting point is 00:54:05 The simplest explanation is that they are being overtly influenced by the Kremlin. And I don't know if that's through an exchange of money and if it's that direct or if it's a more indirect route, but I am like, in my heart of hearts, I am like certain of it. I am absolutely certain because the behavior is just too weird. Their talking points are ripped from the headlines of Russian propaganda outlets every single time. Meanwhile, Zelensky delivered what was really one of the most historic, one of the most passionate speeches out there. And we could start with the Christianity part because first off, a reminder, Zelensky is a Jew and it is Hanukkah. Zelensky didn't even mention Hanukkah once, but he mentioned Christmas like multiple,

Starting point is 00:54:47 multiple, multiple, multiple times. And one of my favorite quotes of Zelensky was when he said he was talking about the power outages and the struggles and the fact that the Ukrainians, they don't even have access to water and food in many areas. And he said, we'll celebrate Christmas. And even if there's no electricity, we do not complain. We Ukrainians will go through this war with dignity and success. We will celebrate Christmas. And even if no electricity, the light in our faith in ourselves

Starting point is 00:55:15 will not be put out. And somebody like Tucker Carlson on Fox News takes that speech right after that incredibly beautiful, powerful, poignant statement. And he says, Zelensky has declared a war on Christianity. I mean, these are some real, real, real sickos here. But you can't help also- It's the same station, Brett, that says Democrats declared war on Christmas. It can't surprise you too much, but it is disturbing because more than half the country watches that channel. And it's like the most popular quote unquote news channel, which is incredibly, incredibly disturbing. And too many people view it as an actual news station when it's straight up just BS made up propaganda. It's gross. But let's talk about Zelensky Biden

Starting point is 00:55:58 briefly. First off, I mean, you could just see it on the look of each of the leaders' faces, how different of a visit this was than the last time Zelensky came here. President Zelensky coming here for his first international trip since over 300 days of the Russian invasion, meets with President Biden, goes to the Oval Office. They are all smiles in there. We have a photo right up for the listeners out there. It's a photo of Biden and Zelensky smiling up on top. And then it's Zelensky giving Trump the side eye on the bottom. Classic, classic, classic photo. Zelensky ended up giving a gift to President Biden, which I thought was a really emotional moment and also showed the

Starting point is 00:56:39 humility of both of the leaders, I think here. and i think if i could find it i think it's worth showing this this clip right now was from military married that is one yes that is from him and i have the list he wrote the list yes i didn't read mr president i got it it's not my it's in ukrainian language but hear that translation it's for him his name is i have his name i could yes yes yes well undeserved but much appreciated thank Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Now listen to all the little things that happened in that exchange. You have President Biden there, first off, wanting to know exactly where it came from. And Zelensky explains that it came from somebody named Pavlo, who had given the medal to Zelensky as a gift on the war zone to give to

Starting point is 00:57:41 Biden. And then Biden then further proceeds to say, is there a number? Is there an email address? Is there a way I could contact him to reach out to him and thank him? And you know that Biden is going to reach out to him and thank him personally. You know he did it within hours of that meeting. You know he did it right away. And then at the end, he makes sure to say, just once again, the humility of it all and the contrast to the past administration. He goes, so undeserving, but thank you so much. This is such an undeserved honor, but thank you so much.

Starting point is 00:58:09 And I think that was a really powerful moment. So then we get Zelensky out there. First off, Biden is going to send Ukraine the Patriot missile system, which I think is incredibly important. It's a highly advanced air defense weapon system, the most advanced in our arsenal. And the one place where Ukraine is being beat right now is in the air war. So that's going to be crucial to the war effort for them. And then Zelensky gave that rousing speech to Congress. And I found him incredibly passionate. He started off by saying, Ukraine against all odds and doom and gloom scenarios, Ukraine didn't fall. Against all odds and doom and gloom scenarios, Ukraine didn't fall. Ukraine is alive and kicking.

Starting point is 00:58:56 His country, his country was invaded unlawfully by an enemy of the United States of America, by a country that wants to destroy us in the United States of America. Yet you have an American political party that was once purportedly the party of Mr. Gorbachev, take down that wall, who is calling the individual who against all odds has not just fended off the Russian invasion, but has miraculously inspired the nation to accomplish one of the most incredible military feats in the history of mankind, who is now addressing, he had to sneak out so he wouldn't get assassinated, who's now addressing Congress. And you have Republicans who are not even willing to clap for him. Going back to what I said before,

Starting point is 00:59:52 you want to have a debate that using this amount of funds for this amount of systems versus this system versus that system versus, hey, we want to have another military leader here with additional oversight. You want to have those conversations. Nobody's going to fault you for having those conversations. But the moment you're out there and you're sitting on your hands and you are not clapping, you are not supporting someone who is fighting for democracy internationally, someone who's standing up to Putin. There's only one thing, Occam's razor, you are a traitor. You are a traitor. That's it. That's it. It's really pathetic. I mean, they have no place in America, these people. And also,

Starting point is 01:00:42 I want to highlight this fact because I'm not sure everybody totally knows that there were also a large group of Republicans who did not even show up to the speech. They just declined. And Josh Hawley was one of them. They called it a photo op. I'm not going to be part of that photo op. Just so disgraceful, so disgraceful. And in a way, it almost makes Gates and Boebert's appearance even worse because you know that they were strictly there for the cameras. They were strictly there because they knew at a certain point in time, the cameras were going to pan over to them and they were going to get there to make their statement of them looking on the phone, acting uninterested,

Starting point is 01:01:19 acting like they don't give a damn about Ukraine. And instead of showing up there, here, let's play what Holly was talking about instead of talking about Ukraine. This is what he was too busy doing, if we have that clip played. You know, you helped negotiate trade deals, but you mentioned human relationships. Why? Well, somebody's got to be honest

Starting point is 01:01:38 and tell the truth to these young men. And the truth is, is what the porn industry is selling them is a total lie. And the truth is, American society needs them. We need them to step up. We need them to go get married and have families and be responsible husbands and fathers. This society is impoverished because too many young men are too despairing or too checked out on social media or porn to be doing what we

Starting point is 01:02:01 need them to do as a country. It's time to call people, to call young people in particular and young men to be something more. And Tucker, they want to be called to it. They don't want to be doing what we need them to do as a country. It's time to call people, to call young people in particular and young men to be something more. And Tucker, they want to be called to it. They don't want to be sold the bill of goods anymore. Somebody needs to tell them the truth. Literally the guy who sells a bill of goods. Literally the guy who's showing up in front of the Capitol with his hand before the insurrection, who runs away.

Starting point is 01:02:24 The most humiliating and funny moment of the January 6th committee hearing is with Hawley hauling ass because he's scared because of his performative whatever. But yeah, while the democracy-loving world is all eyes on Zelensky, he's out there talking about porn and banning porn. That's what his issue is, porn. You got to say Tucker Carlson's show has some range. They start with Zelensky hates Christianity. They pivot to porn. They then go to testicle tanning. I mean, it's a pretty impressive- Man, they definitely hit the gamut. That is for sure. Can I just say this briefly before we move off Zelensky fully? I just hope that the entire 2024 Republican platform is just this crusade against porn. Please,

Starting point is 01:03:14 MAGA Republicans, run against porn, run against marijuana, run against taking away Social Security and Medicare and a woman's right to choose, you're doing it already. Why stop now? Keep doing it because you haven't learned a damn thing from the midterms and it shows. We got to buttress our media though. We got to make sure. One of the things that I've seen as I look through the cable stats is that more people watch this show, the Midas Touch podcast on YouTube and listens than watch actually lots of cable shows. If we were a cable show, the Midas Touch podcast on YouTube and listens, then watch actually lots of cable shows. If we were a cable show, we'd probably be the top 20, top 30. I'd like to get higher on the list, but I want to make sure we're being supportive of all the other pro-democracy media out there.

Starting point is 01:03:57 And that's really what our focus is going to be here on the Midas Touch Network, building this out because it is important that we highlight these things and highlight who this MAGA Republican Party is because you have Fox, which is injecting disinformation in the veins of its people. By the way, one of the things I also want to mention is the fact that earlier this week, there was a hearing in Delaware as part of the Dominion defamation lawsuit. And one of the things that came out in the hearing, it was on a few kind of unrelated procedural motions. But what came out in the hearing was that Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson and their depositions admitted that they basically

Starting point is 01:04:37 knew that all of the disinformation around January 6th was a total lie. They knew that Trump lost, yet they continued to platform it. That was a big lie. They knew that Trump lost, yet they continued to platform it. That was a big revelation from a hearing that took place the middle of this week in the Dominion case. Another big revelation, actually not really a big revelation. We all know that Trump lies on his taxes and that he never paid taxes and that he's a big criminal. But I guess just seeing it in the report though, after all of these years years actually getting the report granted, we don't actually have the actual returns yet, but we had two executive summaries and one that talks about the auditing procedures under the Mandatory Presidential Audit Act, which the IRS is required to engage in mandatory audits of presidents and vice presidents. And the executive summary showed it wasn't until the Democrats won in 2018 and first made a subpoena request to the IRS on April 3rd of 2019. That was the very first time that the IRS even did the examination that they were supposed to do. The

Starting point is 01:05:41 only year of tax returns that were ever even audited under the mandatory audit was 2016. None of the other years were even subject to the mandatory audit. And even the 2016 was not done until after the Democrats took control. The whole effort was by Steve Mnuchin and by Trump's appointee and the IRS and everybody to block this. And so while Donald Trump was targeting his political enemies, like Andrew McCabe and like Comey with audits, they were getting audits, not part of mandatory audit programs. He would have them go after his enemies for audits. Meanwhile, the mandatory audit program that presidents have to abide by, and most presidents, all presidents other than Trump don't care because they turn over their tax returns.

Starting point is 01:06:32 They don't have 500 shell corporations, which was one of the things the report also showed, that he had about 400 to 500 pass-through organizations as well. And so Trump basically just continued to hide it and conceal it. And there was no auditing function taking place while Trump went out there and Trump claimed he was under mandatory audit. Trump claimed that he was under, he claimed, I'm being audited. No, you weren't. There's a total lie. The whole thing about being under audit lie. Total lie. We all knew it was a lie. The whole thing about being under audit lie. Total lie. We all knew it was a lie.

Starting point is 01:07:07 And then everybody like Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the RNC, all the Republican defenders, they all were like, what? He's being audited. What are we going to do? He said he's been audited. I trust him. I trust him. We all knew it was BS.

Starting point is 01:07:17 Now we have proof that it was BS. Absolute garbage. He posted major losses every year for the most part, except for a couple. In 2018 and 2019, he said he lost nearly $32 million in 2015 and 2016. He lost nearly $32 million in 2015 and 2016. He lost nearly $13 million in 2017. And then in 2018, he actually made apparently $24.4 million. That was his most profitable year. And he paid around a million bucks in taxes, which is something like a 4% effective tax rate, which was the most taxes that he paid the entire time.

Starting point is 01:07:56 In 2019, he apparently made $4.4 million according to his taxes. Then in 2020, he lost $4.6 million in taxes. He paid $0 in income tax in 2020. Not only did he pay $0 in income tax, he took a $5.47 million tax refund. And I know you have a lot of people on the right that said, yeah, he's smart. He's not paying the government. He's not paying the IRS. Let me just tell you, that's your money. When Donald Trump gets a refund of $5.47 million, your taxes that you paid, you basically paid to pay Donald Trump's refund off. It's a distribution of wealth. Republicans like to talk about, oh, socialist Democrats,

Starting point is 01:08:39 redistribution of wealth. What we see in Trump's taxes is a fundamental redistribution of wealth from the working class Americans into Donald Trump's bank account. We should be very clear about what we're wishing. It's such a great way of saying it. It's so true. I'm really good with words sometimes. I have to paint a picture with my tongue here, Ben, but that's not all. I mean, there's a lot of potential fraud implications here. You have Donald, you have Don Jr., you have Ivanka and others all implicated in this because you have a lot of very suspicious, to say the least, deductions, which basically matched all their personal income, all their personal expenses to a T. For example, this is a minor one right here.

Starting point is 01:09:21 But in 2019, Melania Trump reported a $3,848 worth of modeling income. And then somehow she came up with an exact to the penny amount of expenses to offset that income. Even for like $3,000, they were doing it. And they were doing it for these large expenses as well. I mean, there are a lot of very questionable private jet expenses that are written off, large unsubstantiated charitable deductions with no receipts as to what the charitable deductions are whatsoever, a lot of very suspicious payments to the kids. And I think this really needs to be looked into more because what he would do was he would give money to the kids via fake loans. He would call

Starting point is 01:10:01 them loans to avoid the gift tax so that when they received the money, they wouldn't have to pay tax on the money that they received. And you had the IRS team just so woefully inequipped to handle Donald Trump's taxes. They had to expand the team that they had looking at it from one agent to three agents. They were looking through all those 500 pass through companies that you were talking about, trying to identify every single thing. And remember, this would not have happened to him. Like you have all these Republicans. Why are they just – they left to do this.

Starting point is 01:10:32 Why are you targeting Trump? Why aren't you targeting Biden for this? Because Biden released his taxes, man. Like what do you mean? And he did the mandatory audits. Like why not – why aren't you going after Obama? Because he released his taxes. mean? And he did the mandatory audits. Like, why not? Why aren't you going after Obama? Because he released his taxes. Like, how disingenuous could you be to try to what about this issue?

Starting point is 01:10:52 There's one person since 1973, one president or vice president who did not abide by this policy, and it's Donald Trump. And that's why. And I think we really have to investigate the corruption that we saw here at the IRS as well. These appointees, like you said, Ben, who went after his political enemies, yet refused to engage in this audit of Donald Trump's taxes. It is all incredibly suspect to me. It shows, by the way, why we need more resources also at the IRS for oversight of all these things and why you have all these Republicans complaining whenever resources are allocated to the IRS. But the whole thing, once again, and by the way, it's a lesson in projection from Donald Trump and the Trump administration and the Republican Party who likes to go, deep state, deep state, deep state this, deep state that, when you have Donald Trump in just

Starting point is 01:11:41 about every branch of the government planting his own little deep state, his own loyalists, not people who are serious about government at all, but people who are there strictly to protect Donald Trump's freedom and Donald Trump's bank account. That's all they're there for. And by the way, there's still people out there in the government, I bet, who were appointed by Trump who are doing his bidding. One of the things that the Republicans were saying leading up to this release is this is a travesty, the precedent this is going to set. What are you talking about? If you run for the president of the United States, you should release your tax returns publicly. I actually really want that to be a precedent. I want it to be a legal precedent.

Starting point is 01:12:25 There should absolutely be a law. You know what I also want? Mandatory background checks on presidents. If you have to pass a background check to work most jobs in America, you should have a pass a background check to be the United States president. So yeah, that's the type of precedent that I want. And then the Republican leader of the House Ways and Means Committee is like, could you imagine what are they going to go after next, the United States Supreme Court? I'd like to see the United States Supreme Court. Don't threaten me with a good time. I'd like to see the United States Supreme Court's tax returns.

Starting point is 01:12:58 Well, absolutely. If you're having that position of power, okay, what's your salary? It's like $180,000 to $2 to 220K to be a Supreme Court justice, maybe more now. That's what you should be making a year. We already know that Jimmy Thomas is leasing out Clarence Thomas' time for money. What are his tax returns looking like? I'd like to see those tax returns. So that's one point I want to make. Brett, anything you want to say on precedent? Because two, I want to talk about how we need to message this to the American people.

Starting point is 01:13:28 Yeah. Well, I'll add just one other thing, that there is a bill going through now to make this not just a mandatory IRS policy, but to make it law that presidents have to show their tax returns. And so there was a bill that actually passed the House floor today. Of course, every Democrat voted for it, and 201 Republicans voted against it. These people, man. How do you vote against that? I mean, this is where though, like Hakeem Jeffries, what we talked about, this is where though you got to message everything like that. And the same thing, because Brett, last week the Republicans voted against raising the minimum wage and all the Democrats voted for it. Like you have all of those Republicans voting against the president of the United States

Starting point is 01:14:11 releasing tax returns. What are you what are you scared of? Why would you be opposed to that? Occam's razor, the simplest explanation sometimes is the answer. Because if you're a traitor, if you are engaged in crimes, if what you're after is a Putin-style oligarchy and the overthrow of our democracy, you'd probably vote consistent with freaking traitors. So Brett, thank you for showing that. It's such a good point. And speaking of- And Ben, just because you keep saying it

Starting point is 01:14:42 really quickly, Occam's razor, just for the listeners who may not be familiar with that term, do you want to explain what that term means? Just so everyone's in the know. I'm just joking. Yes. It means the- Absolutely not. It means sometimes the simplest explanation is the correct explanation. The simplest explanation, but that's why I was saying that after Occam's Rates. Sometimes the simplest explanation is actually the answer. People are looking to try to connect dots when it's just like, okay, the answer is because they're traitors, because they're not one of democracy. They don't want transparency. That's why they're voting against it. And what I want to say about the American people and how we need to message this though too, is that there's a

Starting point is 01:15:21 broader issue here with our tax system in general. And Brett, you hit the nail on the head with redistribution of wealth from working class to billionaires. And billionaires are the ones who are sucking up all of this wealth because all of the working class and middle class and everyone, you're paying more taxes than Donald Trump and all these other, frankly, billionaires and millionaires who are utilizing tricks like this as well that the Republicans are supporting. You remember that clip in 2017 when the Republicans passed their tax bill and they're all there clapping and cheering and it's all a bunch of white men. They're doing that for the billionaires to screw

Starting point is 01:16:00 you. They're trying to screw you, the working class, and they want to make you they're trying to screw you the working class and they want to they want to make you talk about the green m ms and they want to make you talk about sex toys in walmart and they want to talk about the war on christmas and they want to talk about dr seuss and they want to get you really riled up with those pronouns so that they can just pickpocket you and steal from you and take your hard-earned money. To take the money you work for with your family, that is what they are after. And these Republican, these rich Republicans are laughing at you. You are their mark and they are taking it directly from your pocket. That is how you message that to the American people, because that is 100% true. Brett, let's talk about George Santos, if that's even his name.

Starting point is 01:16:52 Is his name George Santos, Brett? I couldn't even tell you if it's his name or not. The story just keeps getting weirder and weirder. And this is one of the parts of the show that I am, once again, it means a lot to us because this guy is set to represent the district that we grew up in. So this hits home. But before we get into Santos, I just want to give a huge shout out to all the viewers out there and say, hey, if you love independent media, if you love what we're doing here, if you love how we are delivering the news and telling the truth here without both sides in anything, then consider supporting us on Patreon at patreon.com slash MidasTouch. Hey, no worries at all if you can't, but this is an independent run network.

Starting point is 01:17:31 We have no corporate backing, no billionaire investors, but patreon.com slash MidasTouch. Go check it out. Let's check out George Santos right now. So as I said, the story of George Santos keeps getting weirder and weirder and weirder and weirder. And I've also learned that he's now, he's used throughout his life, he's used all these different aliases. He was George Devolver, George Devolver, Santos, George Santos, this. It's extremely strange. And we went over in the last episode of the Midas Touch podcast, all the weird things about his background, which honestly, there's so much I'm not going to go over right here. But in short,

Starting point is 01:18:12 his entire life, his job history, his education, the existence that he ran a nonprofit for dogs, everything that he ever said was a lie. He claims he worked for Citigroup as a associate asset manager. They didn't even have a position called that at the time. He claims he worked for Citigroup as a associate asset manager. They didn't even have a position called that at the time. He claimed he worked for Goldman Sachs. That's not true. He claimed he went to Baruch College in 2010. There's no record of that. The Friends of Pet United, there's no record of him working for this IRS tax exempted. It's not an IRS tax exempted entity. He took the side of landlords and claimed he was a property owner. Yet in 2015 and 2017, he was evicted twice. In 2015, he was evicted in Queens for not paying

Starting point is 01:18:53 $2,200 in rent. And in 2017, he was evicted from not paying approximately $10,000 in rent. He claims he owns all of these properties. There's no record of him owning these properties. And all of a sudden he came into money in 2021. He didn't have any money before this. He was making $50,000 at something called Link Bridge in 2020. He ran against Tom Swasey, who was the Democratic congressperson from the third congressional district, who, by the way, took over from Steve Israel when that district used to be the second congressional district. That's where I interned for in 2003, 2004. So that seat, that was my first political job where I was an intern on Capitol Hill. So it has this deeper meaning. And then also, I think in the first New York Times report as well, he said that he had

Starting point is 01:19:39 four of his employees were victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting, and that also was completely false, but there's no record of that happening. Then he comes into all of this money all of a sudden where he makes $750,000 on his most recent congressional kind of tax disclosures and a million dollars in dividends. He lends his campaign $700,000. And one of the disclosures requires that you list, if any of your clients pay you more than $5,000 in the year, you have to list it. He claims that what DeVolder, his whatever group does, is capital introductions. He claims it's a consulting company that serves as a liaison between investment funds and investors. Whatever the hell that actually means, who knows, but it certainly means there are clients in the mix for him to be making money. He's not

Starting point is 01:20:30 independently wealthy at all. He was doing GoFundMes for his mom's funeral in 2016 and a whole slew of other GoFundMes in the 2015, 2016 period, but he had no disclosure of any clients. So where did this money come from? All of this money that all of a sudden now he's independently wealthy and loaning money to his campaign. That was the first report though, Brett, right? Today we learned additional facts like he had claimed that his mother, Fatima Santos, Fatima DeVolder rather, that she was a survivor on the South Tower of 9-11. And he says on his biography, but she passed away years later. She died in 2016 and had nothing to do with the World Trade Center.

Starting point is 01:21:12 And she wasn't even in the World Trade Center. That seems to be completely fabricated and false as well. He also claimed that he was, one of the things they said was that he's openly gay. But he never, and he said that he never had to hide being gay in the Republican party, but he never disclosed that he was married to a woman up until 2019. And he filed for divorce in 2019. And now I don't know what happened there, but his whole claim was that the Republican party was so welcoming and that he never had to hide it. Yet he hid a marriage to a woman and no one never even talked about that. And the divorce happened just weeks before he announced this campaign, like the timing also. I think it's important to make sure people know that it's right before that. He also said that he would refer to himself as a Latino Jew. He said he's half Jewish. He said his grandparents

Starting point is 01:22:02 survived the Holocaust by converting to Catholicism and fleeing Europe, according to genealogy records. Not true. You know, ever noticed too, like he makes up lies regarding the most horrific moments in history also. 9-11, the Holocaust, Pulse Nightclub. Yeah, Pulse Nightclub. All of his lies are tied to really horrific, horrific, horrific things to lie about. You got to be really, really, really sick. And so we started doing some, we were just Googling after this, and we found this amazing report by the Daily Beast, which people haven't been speaking about since this came out. And I think this brings the episode full circle a little bit because we were speaking earlier about Russian influence in the Republican

Starting point is 01:22:46 Party and how there must be somebody behind the scenes pulling the string here, right? So I encourage everybody to check out this Daily Beast story. I'll try to see if I could bring up an image here so you know exactly what it is. But it's called A Russian Oligarch's Cousin Funneled Cash to New York Politician. Wow. And this broke before the New York Times stories about his false idea, about all of the fraud and fabrications. Because we were asking on Monday, we were like, where's he getting all of this money from? And again, we don't have the direct link there yet. But obviously, it raises a lot of red flags and sometimes one plus one equals two not always the case but here it seems to be

Starting point is 01:23:31 that case and brett that article that you that you pulled up the individual who's the cousin of the russian oligarch the oligarch is victor vexberg um his cousin is someone named andrew intruder who's a cousin um of the cousin of the oligarch, who's responsible for managing the oligarch's assets. He's his cash handler. Cash handler, who was utilizing political action committees and donating lots of money to political action committees to George Santos, the PACs that were supporting George Santos. And again, these are the types of things that need to be investigated.

Starting point is 01:24:13 There's no evidence that Intrader was involved in this or that Russian oligarchs were involved in this. But Brett, to your point, Russia's pumping a ton of money into it. This guy's entire background is fraudulent. And all of a sudden, he came into a huge amount of money. But get this, George Santos' main position is, he says that Ukraine is a totalitarian regime. He's calling for Zelensky to be overthrown. He's one of the main pro-Putin propagandists out there, and he's someone who could potentially get on the intelligence committee. Think about that. I mean, it's simple math, people. Simple math. Let's put one and one together. things that you could possibly lie about is, well, if you lie about something so horrible that,

Starting point is 01:25:05 you know, so tragic that you had members of your family who were there at the trade center that day or, or family or friends that were at the Pulse nightclub shooting, who's going to gut check you on that? Who's going to, who's going to actually be like, are you sure? And look into that. So maybe that's how that fell through the cracks. I just have no understanding of how possibly this wasn't vetted prior to election day and that those stories didn't come out prior to then. But also, isn't this Santos person, isn't he just the perfect example of the modern day Republican party? He's a liar, he's a cheat, he's a phony, he's a fraud. And it's all in this pursuance of political power, but just total phoniness and just a garbage human being. And one of the things we talked about, Jordy, to your point, and I think it's a perfect way of wrapping the show up with a nice bow though, is it's perceived political power.

Starting point is 01:25:57 Yes. That's the thing. Someone like a Kevin McCarthy or someone like a Matt Gaetz or a Lauren Boebert, a Marjorie Taylor Greene, even a Donald Trump at some point, because Donald Trump ultimately has to be beholden to a Putin. There really isn't real power, right? Real power should be wielded through the processes in a democracy, consensus, the will of the people, right? In this Magaville, no one really has power at the end of the day because they're all beholden in a web of lies tethered to themselves. And ultimately at the end of the day, someone even like a Marjorie Taylor Greene has to take

Starting point is 01:26:38 orders from a Trump, right? Even like a Kevin McCarthy, Kevin McCarthy's job, he really wanted to be the speaker so that he could actually have no power. Real power is Nancy Pelosi. Real power is actually being beloved and building consensus and working with people to solve problems and not being a proxy for all these different special interests that are ultimately undermining our country and our legacy. And I think what Vladimir Putin recognized in the Republican Party is also why Trump succeeded in the Republican Party. These are real cowardly traitors. They really hate our country, and they're really willing to do anything in pursuit of their view of celebrity or trying to be someone or just trying to be important. They don't care about

Starting point is 01:27:33 our country. Money, they'll throw that constitution out the window tomorrow. And how do you know? January 6th. How do you know? Occam's razor. They said it. They said it. He said he would terminate the Constitution. Trump said he's going to terminate the Constitution. I don't think you get clearer than terminate the Constitution. We are such strict constitutionalists. We so strictly construe the Constitution that we construe it and we rip it up. You's, I mean, you know, you talk about these Supreme Court justices, you talk about the Kavanaugh's journey to your point as well, and the people like this, you know, we're so textualist, we don't even read the text anymore. That's ultimately where they go

Starting point is 01:28:15 to when they feel that their privilege is being taken away, that they just go, you know what, what's the point of this document? What would the founders really know? What the founders really know? That's how absurd it is. But again, that's why we need to call it out each and every time here. And we got to do the work in place of what the media has failed to do. That's what we have to build. That's my holiday desire. That is my New Year's resolution, is to build this together, is to build this community together. And I want to thank each and every person out there who's a part of the Midas Touch community. All of you watching on YouTube, all of you listening wherever you get your audio podcasts, we at the Micellus family at the Midas Touch Network are most grateful in this holiday season for family,

Starting point is 01:29:15 for health, and for you, and for you, because none of this is possible without you and your support. And one of the interesting things that we've done here, which I think we've done it so differently. So we didn't go out there and do what all other media networks do, right? They go out and they raise a bunch of money. We didn't do that. We didn't go to investors.

Starting point is 01:29:38 We started kind of just doing this by crowdfunding. We have a Patreon site, patreon.com slash Midas Touch. We don't take any outside investors. So that's how we're 100% independent. Well, we'd still be 100% independent no matter what, but that helps us. We're 100% accountable to you. And we're getting more engagement, more views than the large media networks. And we're unapologetically pro-democracy. So wherever you are in the world, wherever you are in the world, if you want to help grow this platform, go check it out. Check it out at patreon.com slash MidasTouch, P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com slash MidasTouch. You'll love the exclusive membership opportunities

Starting point is 01:30:26 that are at Patreon.com slash MidasTouch. Exclusive merch drops. There's one membership tier where you could become an honorary producer of this podcast. Then your name appears on YouTube in perpetuity. As an honorary producer, you also get a great poster

Starting point is 01:30:43 saying that you're an honorary producer. We also get a great poster saying that you're an honorary producer. We just have it. We just put it up right there for our YouTube watchers. Thank you to our honorary producers and all of the names will be listed there. And as long as YouTube exists, your names will appear here

Starting point is 01:30:57 in YouTube forever. And a lot of behind the scenes footage and exclusive podcast and much more. So check it out. Patreon.com slash Midas Touch. Makes for a great holiday gift too. I like that, Jordy. It does make for a great holiday gift.

Starting point is 01:31:11 Also check out store.midastouch.com. S-T-O-R-E dot MidasTouch.com. Yeah, Jordy, what you could even do potentially as a good holiday gift idea, I like it. You could even get one of those honorary producer tiers though for someone, as a gift for someone, and maybe you could have their name could be the honorary producer. I love that idea for the oldest brother who has been a lawyer for... You could make a friend or a colleague an honorary producer of the fastest growing pro-democracy network in the

Starting point is 01:31:45 world and have their names appear as well. So that's patreon.com slash MidasTouch. Also, store.midastouch.com for the best unapologetically pro-democracy gear. Make attorneys, get attorneys. That's a great hat right there. We also got the Convict 45 or Convict 45. I read banned books and so much more. Check out store.midastouch.com. We appreciate you so much. Brett, your final words and you could pass it to Jordy. My final words are I want to wish everybody such a happy holidays, a merry Christmas, whatever you celebrate. I hope you are having a great time. I hope you get to relax a little bit. I know it's crazy out there. And get energized because we're going to need you out there in 2023. And I just want to express my gratitude to you all and say how thankful I am to have this Midas Mighty community out there, this unapologetically pro-democracy community out there. It means the world to me, and it is more important than you could even imagine for the future of our country and for the world. And so I thank you.

Starting point is 01:32:51 Thank you. Thank you. Happy holidays, everybody. Well said, big bro. Shout out to the Midas Mighty! At Midas Touch, we are unapologetically pro-democracy, and we demand justice and accountability. That's why we're spreading our message to convict 45.

Starting point is 01:33:10 That's right. Gear up right now with your convict 45 tees and pins at store.midastouch.com. That's store.midastouch.com.

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The MeidasTouch Podcast - More Trump Crimes Exposed and More MAGA Implosions

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