The MeidasTouch Podcast - Putting Humanity Back in Politics with Sen. Jen Jordan and Grant Stern

Episode Date: December 14, 2021

On today's episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast we two incredible guests, Georgia’s State Senator and Candidate for Attorney General Sen. Jen Jordan and writer Grant Stern! During the interview with Sen. Jordan, we discuss what she can do to protect women in Georgia if Roe is overturned, election integrity and Kanye West’s publicist (?) trying to force a false confession from a Georgia election official. The remainder of the episode, the brothers discuss the tornadoes that hit midwestern and southern US states, CA Gov. Newsom’s response to the abortion ban and new information detailing Mark Meadows involvement in the Jan 6. insurrection.  We close the episode with a bombshell report from Grant Stern! Stern’s report (which can be found at grantstern.substack.com) unearths how Sidney Powell was mis-representing & not properly disclosing important legal filings in Florida and the potential repercussions from this action. If you enjoyed today's episode, please be sure to rate, review and subscribe! As always, thank YOU for listening. DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS: HOMEDICS AIR PURIFIER: HoMedics.com/MEIDAS and use code MEIDAS BETTERHELP: betterhelp.com/MEIDAS SOLE: yoursole.com/meidas and use promo code MEIDAS WONDERY: Listen to BUSINESS WARS: CHRISTMAS MOVIE WARS on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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That's the sexiest way to open up a show, huh? Yeah, just screaming let's go in people's ears. I'm sure our listeners would love that. Let's go. Yeah. I mean, I just got to hype myself up because I'm still annoyed at YouTube for suspending our channel for a video that we made six months ago. But maybe we're watching this on YouTube right now. Maybe we're not. Who knows? Let's see what they do. Okay, so you have to give people some context about the YouTube suspension, which is the silliest thing in the world. But we've been suspended from YouTube for a week.

We got one strike. I gotta say, this cancel culture, you guys, this cancel culture is out of control. So walk us through, Brett, why we are suspended. I wish I really knew. I wish I really knew, Ben. Basically, we posted a video in June of 2021 with the great Walter Masterson, who attended a QAnon conference, and he spoke to people like Sidney Powell and Michael Flynn, and he spoke to people like George Papadopoulos, all the greatest, all the greats. And so at this conference, he did a segment speaking with them.

We posted a clip, which was like the most innocuous clip. The irony of this is it was a satirical clip about cancel culture. And he was saying, we don't want to be canceled by YouTube. We don't want to be canceled by Twitter. So we can't talk about election fraud. So instead of talking about election fraud, let's say Domino's pizza instead of election fraud. And so he got Sidney Powell, he got George

Papadopoulos to sound silly and say silly things because they thought they were talking about election fraud, but they were talking about Domino's pizza. They were saying, oh yeah, that cheese didn't come out right. And the pizza, this, I mean, the most ridiculous clip. And so this was six months ago at this point. And then I, last night before I go to bed, get a message from YouTube that our account is banned for a week and that we're not allowed to post not allowed to do live videos not allowed to do everything because according to YouTube this clip promotes and incites violence can I play you the clip tell me where the violence is in this clip I'll play the clip right now because I am

fired up about this actually I'm not to play the clip because if this does go on YouTube, they're going to take this down again. Don't play the clip. Don't play the clip. Look for it on our Twitter. I'm not playing the clip. Poor Brett's been stressing over this for the past 24 hours. He's been reaching out to YouTube customer support. YouTube's Twitter handle has engaged with Brett. And so we will see where that goes. And I just want to give a shout out. Walter Masterson is so brilliant. I remember that when he pitched that idea to us, because Walter Masterson is like the true believer.

Brett's background is falling all over himself right now. Brett's having a rough day, guys. Brett needs some extra luck today. Brett's background is falling on him. But when Walter Masterson,on you know he pitched us this idea he's like all right i'm gonna have access to sydney powell giuliani and like what are you gonna ask him he goes i'm gonna go talk about domino's pizza we're like what do you mean you're gonna talk about domino's pizza he goes domino's pizza is gonna be co-word for dominion

and then we're gonna talk about pizza and then they're going to think it's Dominion. And I was like, OK, I called Brett after I'm like, is Walter is Walter OK? Well, Walter, maybe you just ask him about election fraud. I'm like, maybe ask him the question directly. But Walter knew what he was doing. And and it's a great video. And hopefully we get our YouTube, but we get our YouTube channel back. And you're watching us on YouTube now where you're watching us somewhere. But we have a great guest today. We have state Senator Jen Jordan,

Democratic candidate for attorney general of Georgia. She's a state senator for the sixth district in Georgia. I want to tell everyone, go and watch the speech that Jen Jordan gave with her dissent to HB 481, a law in Georgia that would have banned abortions for six weeks and penalized women and doctors up to 10 years. That law was declared unconstitutional because of Roe v. Wade, but with Roe v. Wade potentially being overturned, a law like HB 481, if change doesn't happen in Georgia, if Stacey Abrams doesn't get elected, if Georgia doesn't start electing Democrats, you are going to have some of the most horrible results in Georgia. And part of her speech, you know, it really goes into, she shares her own personal experience as a woman. And, you know, and this is what I've always said,

you know, I said, I said, as a man, I have no right to even other than to be an ally for me to even try to, you know, put myself in the shoes of what it's like to have to make that choice between a doctor, you know, and your faith. That is nowhere that I should have to do as a man. And the fact that you have male governors and male attorney generals like she's running against and male state senators, you know, pushing these horrible laws. Everybody go and watch the speech she gave in 2019. And she's running for attorney general. But speaking of- As an aside though, let me just say, I like the Georgia pronunciation of Jordan. And I think maybe- Yeah, Ben's not mispronouncing Jordan. That's how you pronounce her last name. It's Jordan.

And just so everyone knows, Jordan is now, that's a tired name. It's either Jordan or Jordy. There was the only two- No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm calling you Jordy. Okay. Third option. Jordy is that Jordy is your name for this show. Okay. And speaking of a man with multiple names like Jordan, Jordy, Jordy, you've got Kanye, Yeezy, Yeezus. And it would be, it would all be humorous if his publicist and quote unquote crisis manager, well, let me back up. First off, Kanye basically tried to steal the election by trying to run into certain democratic regions to siphon off black votes from Biden in a concerted effort to help Donald Trump. So let's start off with that fact, which is incredibly fucked up. That was a thing that happened.

Trying to aid and abet, you know, basically a fascist coup there. But then moving to even more recently, we're now learning that his crisis manager was approaching a Georgia election official and basically threatening the Georgia election official like a mobster to confess that this election official and basically threatening the Georgia election official like a mobster to confess that this election official was engaging in election fraud and to give a confession or

else something bad was going to happen to her and her family. This is what Kanye West's crisis manager told this Georgia election official. Everything I'm saying now is like Georgia, Georgia election official, you know, to threaten this Georgia election official who was just counting votes. To falsely confess, too, I think is an important emphasis on that, to confess to something that she didn't do. Yeah. And the election worker's name was Ruby Freeman. She had been the target of Trump's ire at the time. If you I was going to say, if you go back and look at Trump's tweets, you can't. He's been he's been suspended. But if you if you search the archives and stuff for Trump's tweets, Trump would tweet

about her. He'd go, where's Ruby? Where's Ruby? Ruby Freeman, because what they were doing at the time is they were not only targeting the Brian Kemp's of the world, but they were also targeting these lower level election officials who are counting the votes. They were doing it from both ends and attacking our election system from inside out. And so Ruby Freeman became the focus of this. And so what we know now is that Reuters reported that this publicist, Kanye's publicist, apparently, although Kanye's team is

now denying that she's his publicist. But I mean, it's pretty clear that she is and was the publicist at the time. This publicist was threatening this election worker, telling her that she was sent by a quote unquote powerful person. We don't know who that is. Is that Kanye West? Is that Donald Trump? To give her this warning that her family and her life is in danger if she did not falsely confess that there was election fraud in Georgia. That was the kind of mafioso stuff that was going on in Georgia, Ben, as you said. And it really just goes to show you like this in every aspect of it was a coup. Like we have to speak about this as it is. It was a coup. It is a coup. They are still trying to overthrow the government today in different means. And the more that comes out

every single day, the more documents we see when we see Mark Meadows and the stuff that he turned over with the PowerPoint that laid out the plan. When we see the document that was posted on, I believe it was January 4th, two days before the coup by Chris Miller, the acting secretary of defense that Trump had installed two months earlier, the memo saying, National Guard, stand down. National Guard, we are not going to be activated on January 6th. Meadows saying that the National Guard was instructed to stay away from the pro-Trump people.

They were there to defend the pro-Trump people, is what they said. January 6th was a coup attempt, and it didn't work that time. But they are still trying it over and over again. And what I think, seeing all this news, seeing the Kanye West news, seeing the Mark Meadows news, seeing the Chris Miller news, seeing everything that's coming out every single day, it becomes more and more obvious that this wasn't a one-day spontaneous thing. This was planned over the course of months. It was executed by the highest levels of our government. And it was an attempt to overthrow our democracy and seize total power for Republicans. And what I think was happening that day is I think there was like 180 whatever minutes where Trump didn't act, right? Remember

that time when we were like, are they going to send in the National Guard? What the hell is going on? Like, they're just going to let them attack the Capitol? There was that time period. I think Trump was hoping, I think he was begging that there would be people on the left there to attack these Trumpers and then to cause a mini war out there in front of the Capitol. That's what I think Trump was praying for. And then he would have implemented martial law. He would have had the military takeover. He would have shut down the election process. He would have declared a new election and he would have had the military takeover. He would have shut down the election process. He would have declared a new election and he would have declared himself dictator. That's in the PowerPoint. That's in a PowerPoint presentation. That was part of what Mark Meadows turned over. I just don't think people are processing how crazy this is. Like they tried

to overthrow our government. I don't think people are processing. I don't think the average American on the street is processing how close we were and how close we are to an authoritarian takeover of this country. And it drives me insane that people just don't understand the stakes of what is happening to our democracy day in and day out and what Republicans did and what they're trying to do. It drives me absolutely nuts. I remember when I was post the election, when Biden won and Biden was declared the winner, I remember driving to the office and I remember Mike Pompeo was giving a press conference. You remember this? And he was asked, you know, will there be a peaceful transition of power or what's your view of a peaceful transition of power? And basically,

Pompeo was like, there's not going to be a transition. It was one of the most chilling moments that still sticks with me. Play the clip. And then I want to talk a little bit more about it, but and try to find if you can, Brett, the specific date of that clip, because I think that's important. Here's a clip from November 10th, 2020. Is the State Department currently preparing to engage with the Biden transition team? And if not, at what point does a delay hamper a smooth transition or pose a risk to national security? There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration. All right, we're ready.

I mean, that was after Biden was declared the winner, significantly the winner. And there you had the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, really one of the most powerful individuals in the United States of America, saying that there would be a peaceful transition to a second Trump administration. That was kind of an oh shit moment for me, which was like, yeah, I've been watching that right now. I still have the chills been watching that. I mean, I'm not going to lie. Like sometimes it's hard to do the show and it's hard to do the show because it's hard to talk about infrastructure and it's hard to talk about inflation and gas prices and things like that.

When we literally have a fascist regime tried to overthrow the government like 11 months ago. It makes it really difficult. Pull open that January 4th, 2021 memo that you discussed from the secretary of defense, the acting secretary of defense, because Trump got nobody appointed. So he would just basically put his little cronies in there as acting because he never went through the actual democratic process. Well, this is what happened with Chris Miller is this is at the time period when, and we need to know what these interviews are like with these Trump officials, but there was

that time period when there was a mass exodus of Trump officials. You remember that? When people were just leaving the administration, because I think they all knew what Trump was plotting. I think they all knew he was plotting the coup. We all remember Bill Barr leaving. We all remember, who did Chris Miller replace? Was it Esper? I think Esper, did Esper leave on his own volition or did Trump force him out? I'll look it up. But basically what happened was, you know, Trump puts this guy in two months before in

November. And what happened? Trump terminated Esper, by the way. So Trump terminates Esper. And then he puts in this Chris Miller guy. And it's very clear now, if it wasn't clear then, that Chris Miller's main function was to help Trump seize power of the government if he didn't win the election. And that's exactly what he did. And not only was the insurrection itself and all the actions that came before it, not only was that so horrible, but remember

also what happened after the fact. Chris Miller was one of the main people who obstructed the transition to Biden. Remember, there was no transition to this presidency. They didn't help at all in the transition of our government for the first time in our history. Like, I just think when all this stuff comes out, it just hits me more and more just how crazy it is, how handicapped this administration was coming in by an administration who refused to accept the smooth transition of power, just the fundamental tenant of American history for all these years.

And I got to read this memo for our listeners and viewers. So January 4th, 2021, this is a memo from the acting secretary of defense employment guidance for the district Columbia national guard. This memorandum responds to your January 4th memorandum regarding the district of Columbia request for district of Columbia National Guard support in response to planned demonstrations from January 5th to 6th, 2021. And then, so to be clear, this is the D.C. requesting National Guard because they knew what was going to happen. And this is what the guidance is from the Secretary of Defense of the United States. Without my subsequent personal authorization, the D.C. National Guard is not authorized the following,

to be issued weapons, ammunitions, bayonets, batons, or ballistic protection equipment, such as helmets and body armor, to interact physically with protesters, except when necessary in self-defense or defense of others, to employ any riot control agents, to share equipment with law enforcement agencies, to use intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets, or to conduct incident awareness assessment activities, to employ helicopters or any other assets, to conduct searches, seizures, arrests, or other similar direct law enforcement activity, to seek support from any

other, from any non-DCNG National Guard units. That should send chills down your spine. Let me sum up what the memo says, Ben. You can't do shit, National Guard. Stand there and watch it happen. You can't do anything. Trump's regime defunded the National Guard. Trump's regime defunded the police. I mean, it's worse than that. I mean, they fostered an insurrection, and then they didn't allow the National Guard to do its work. But you're 100% right. I mean, they fostered an insurrection and then they didn't allow the National Guard to do its work. But you're 100 percent this. It's Newsom basically saying that he was going to implement an SB8 style law with respect to certain types of guns, assault weapons in California. And so remember, the SB8 scheme basically deputized private citizens to serve as bounty hunters

to report women and doctors who get abortions or who aid and abet abortions. And the punishment for aiding and abetting an abortion would be $10,000. And it's a scheme that was an end run around federal law by basically putting the power, not in the government, but in private citizens so that private citizens had the right, because the view was you have to sue a government entity, and the only remedy against individuals who enforce the law is you'd have to sue each individual who utilizes the $10,000 bounty law versus if the government passed a law that was counter to Roe v. Wade, that could be challenged in federal court very quickly. But if there was no government entity passing the law, there's no ripe law to challenge. So you'd have to sue the

individuals and the individuals haven't invoked the law yet. So it's a way to chill abortion. Well, Governor Newsom says, quote, I'm outraged by yesterday's Supreme Court decision allowing Texas's ban on most abortion services to remain in place and largely endorsing Texas's scheme to insulate its law from the fundamental protections of Roe v. Wade. But if states can now shield their laws from review by the federal courts that compare assault weapons to Swiss Army knives, then California will use that authority to protect people's lives where Texas used used it to put women in harm's way. I have directed my staff to work with the legislature and the attorney general on a bill that would create a right of action, allowing private citizens to seek injunctive relief and statutory damages of at least $10,000

per violation, plus costs and attorney's fees against anyone who manufactures, distributes, or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit or parts in the state of California. And the most efficient way to keep these devastating weapons off our streets is to add to the threat of private lawsuits. We should do just that. And that was in response also to the Supreme Court's ruling last week that allowed SBA to basically remain in effect. And Ben was in response also to the Supreme Court's ruling last week that allowed SBA to basically remain in effect. And Ben, this is what the judges were talking about, right? The judges had some of the judges had made this comment that, you know, what's stopping any other state from doing this for gun rights? And Justice Kavanaugh said that, too. Yeah.

Yeah. And so, you know, basically Newsom went, OK, bet, bet, let's do it. And I do think this. So is this like the be constitutional, you know, down the line? Look, I think SB8 ultimately will be declared, you know, unconstitutional and be struck down. I just think what the Supreme Court did by keeping SB8 in place, but allowing it to go through the federal court system is they just delayed the inevitable, like it will be struck down eventually. But what also the Supreme Court was buying time for, and this is what was so sinister about their ruling, they're going to rule in June or July on overturning Roe v. Wade. And so basically, by the time SB8 is going to be overruled, Roe v. Wade is probably going to be overturned in June.

So you're not going to need an SB8 in the first place. So I think the SB8, so I think the Supreme Court knew that. They knew that something like California was going to do this. So they were like, no, no, no, no, no. You could challenge the law, but you have to go through a really long process. Meanwhile, we're going to ban abortions. And so what's going to happen is the governor knew, you know, this type of law is also going to be challenged. And what the Supreme Court's going to say is, wait, wait, wait. We never said that these laws were cool. We said you can challenge these laws. You just have to go through the right process. And the Supreme Court is full of hypocrites like it's not like and it's not like they're going to, you know, I don't think this is going to really change anything at the end of the day, I guess is what I'm trying to say. I like though that it will put people on the record.

Yeah, I think it will put people on the record. And more than that, I think what people are looking for in the country right now, especially Democrats, is they're looking for fighters. They're looking for people who take action. And I think this is playing the game. You know, Newsom is stepping in the ring and he is playing their game and he is doing it better than them. And I think at its core, I think what people want to see across the board, whether we're looking at January 6th or whether we're looking at anything, voting rights, whatever it is, they want to see politicians who take bold action and do bold moves.

And this, I got to say, this is a move that you would see like a DeSantis do, you know, like this is like this is like the Democratic version of that, but for good. And I think we have to have politicians who are willing to get in the ring and be willing to fight and are willing to play a little dirty, frankly, to get things done. I agree. I'm excited to bring in a state senator, Jen Jordan, on the podcast running for Attorney General in Georgia. Before doing that, I want to talk about Home Medics. This podcast is brought to you by Home Medics. I'm going to be honest. I love my dogs, Taquito and Chiquito, but they constantly bring germs into my house. And I was thinking, do I have allergies? It's getting unbearable. And then you know what I got? What'd you get? I got a whole medics. Let's go.

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There you go. That is what's called an ad read for all of those who doubted. A plus. Home Medics might have an A plus from the Better Business Bureau. Your read has an A plus from the- Let's bring in Georgia State Senator Jen Jordan, Democratic candidate for attorney general will be running against and I'm confident that you'll be running against Attorney General Chris Carr, who I want to talk about just some of his policies, anti-Medicaid. He basically supports an abortion law that is more restrictive even than the one we see in Mississippi, which would basically penalize doctors and women up to 10 years, which was what an HB 481.

But I want to talk with you about a number of topics. But first off, thanks for joining the podcast. No, thank y'all. I love the work y'all have done, especially in 2020. And I just, I'm happy to be here. I want to talk with you about that because we, you know, we traveled into Georgia in 2020 and, you know, we had teams on the ground and, you know, what we learned about Georgia, you know, differed from what our impressions were as just kind of outsiders, because, you know, you hear about there's all these areas in Georgia with, you know, the vote yourself a raise tour about people needing just a living wage. All these areas that were so-called like Trump country, these people were so receptive to the message. They welcomed us with open arms. And I'm wondering why Democrats didn't really go and just reach out. And I know you flipped a district that was previously Republican. And so

what can you tell us about your experience and Georgia generally and like just how to run an election in Georgia to reach out to all Georgians? Look, I think you can't be scared to go into these areas that you think aren't friendly to you. So right now, in terms of the state Senate, I represent probably what is the most affluent state Senate district in the state. But I grew up in one of the poorest. And so taking those two experiences, you realize that at the end of the day, in terms of values, that's what you got to talk about. You got to talk about your values as a candidate, because when you start talking about things in terms of what you think is important, or what you want to prioritize, that's what people listen to. So that's why folks were receptive to y'all when you came in, because you were talking about really,

I mean, that was your message. It was very values-based. And when people hear that, you know, they tend to like what Democrats have to say and Democratic candidates. And then, you know, especially in these areas that tend to be that competitive in 22. And I think that's one thing we really have to kind of keep top of mind, that we have to go where What are you telling voters that differentiates you from the attorney to do certain things. That's just a complete misapprehension of what the role of the Attorney General in the state of Georgia is. The AG here really is supposed to represent the people of this state. Now, don't get me wrong, you're also supposed to represent different government agencies and the like when necessary. But your primary responsibility is to the people of the state of Georgia. And when their rights are being violated

or when they're being hurt or whatever it is, that's when you have to step in and actually prioritize them over any party or any other elected official. You know, the current attorney general, he was supportive of some of the groups that marched on the U.S. Capitol and were involved in the insurrection. Like, does that that would seem to resonate with me if I'm a Georgia voter and say, hey, I really would not want my attorney general supporting insurrection. Is that something that that resonates there or do people still not get it? It should resonate with people. I mean, look, it wasn't even that he was involved in. He was the head of the Republican Attorney General's Association, which is really the entity, an arm of them. I think it's called the Rule of Law Defense Fund, something like that. They were doing robocalls,

getting people to go to the Stop the Steal rally. Not only that, but I think it's been shown now that they were actually funneling money through that entity to give to the Stop the Steal effort. This is the Attorney General of the state of Georgia, the one person who's supposed to make sure that the laws are enforced, and you have him, you know, repping or the head of an organization that really is encouraging people basically to overthrow the government. Yeah, that should concern everybody, and that really should resonate no matter what party you say that you're a part of or kind of what policies you're like, because at the end of the day, if you don't have the rule of law and you don't have somebody who's actually enforcing the

laws, then nothing else really matters. I remember in 2019 watching the dissent you delivered on the floor to HB 481. I remember watching it then for those listening who don't know what HB 481 would have done and can do if Roe is overturned. It would ban abortions after six weeks. It would penalize women and doctors up to 10 years. You took to the Senate floor. You shared very personal experiences in one of the most impassioned speeches I've ever seen. And now reflecting on that speech now with the Supreme Court's oral argument in Dobbs v. Mississippi, which appears the Supreme Court's poised to overturn Roe v. Wade.

I mean, what was your reaction when you saw the Supreme Court or heard of their oral arguments? And, you know, what do you think is going to happen there? Look, I think we know that at a minimum, I think obviously the protections of Roe are going to be dialed back. And that's the best possible scenario for women, honestly. But it really looks like we're going to a complete kind of reversal of Roe and then kind of a devolution, you know, of that decision making to the states and to the general assemblies. And we saw this coming and we've seen it for a few years. It's just kind of taken time to get there. And specifically because Donald Trump got a third pick to the court. But it's one of those things that I,

and that's why I gave the speech I did, because we normally talk about this in terms of pro-choice or pro-life or anti or whatever it is. But at the end of the day, what we're talking about are fundamental rights that women have and have had for almost 50 years. And we're going to dial all that back. And folks need to understand it's not just about abortion. I mean, this goes back to Griswold and even the ability for a woman to get contraception without having her husband say that it was okay. I mean, there are some really basic fundamental issues at play here. But putting that to the side in terms of women, I mean, you know, the ramifications when

we think about kind of Overfeld and the other kind of gains we've made in terms of all the other cases, you know, gay marriage and the like, you know, a reversal of Roe really could have an impact with respect to all of that as well. And as Attorney General, what could you do, you know, what would you plan to do to protect women in Georgia if Roe is overturned? Look, I think at the end of the day, you have to have an attorney general who is willing to issue opinions in terms of the law. And for example, with respect to Georgia, so let's say Rose overturned, right? And then 481 may go into place. Well, in Georgia, it's pretty clear to me after doing the research that if a law when passed is unconstitutional, but then somehow becomes constitutional at some

other point, it has to go all the way back through the process. And so you would really need an attorney general who would be willing to advocate for that and tell the General Assembly, you can't just march forward or this law can't be enforced until this goes back through the entire legislative process. And so with respect to that, why is that important? Well, we have elections in November. I expect that the Supreme Court will issue an opinion in Dobbs in June, but we don't go back to session until January. So that November election is going to mean everything, because if you get a Democratic Attorney General elected, but not only that, if you get a Democratic governor and Stacey Abrams and they have to go back through the legislative process, we will then have a Democratic governor who could veto 481 and keep it from ever actually

going in the wall. I'd like to talk to you, Senator, about consequences. I think one of the things that so many people right now are frustrated about is the fact that we saw all this in post-insurrection. We saw all this kind of blatant criminality, what it seems from the outside. We saw Donald Trump ask for 11,780 votes or whatever it is, one more than the votes that he got for president. We saw Lindsey Graham apparently ask the secretary of State to throw out votes that were legally cast. Where are the consequences and why aren't there state investigations into this? I believe there is a Fulton County investigation into this right now that we heard about months and months and months ago. But why are we hearing any updates there and what's going on? Well, in terms of

Fulton County, I think it's still in the hands of the grand jury. So all that's under Georgia law is top secret. But with respect to the AG's office, he's not doing anything in terms of any of that. And the more we know, the worse it gets. I'm sure y'all saw the Kanye video that came out where they basically came in and were threatening election workers and trying to get them to lie and say that there was fraud in the election. I mean, that needs to be prosecuted. All of it does. I mean, the fact that we have election workers who fear for their lives and the attorney general isn't doing anything about it, that's a problem. But even more than that, it's kind of what you were talking about in terms of when people see that the laws aren't being enforced, then that makes them think that

there aren't any consequences. You see the insurrectionists, you see all these folks that are doing things, breaking the laws, and they say, well, what are you going to do about it? Because at the end of the day, nobody is doing anything in the state of Georgia with respect to that. And that's got to change.. Going off this, these allegations of voter fraud, these constantly debunked allegations that keep being brought up and brought up. You know, earlier this year, SB 202 was signed into law by Brian Kemp in response to these allegations. I mean, do you view that as a voter suppression law? And I guess that's one end of the question. And question two would be, how do we combat this voter suppression that's taken place in the state?

So in terms of 202, what's interesting is that it's about a hundred page bill and it effectively amends almost every statute in the election code. And some portions of the bill are good. They actually took one of my one of the laws I had at the bills I had filed and put it in there. But just because maybe there are a couple of good things in terms of 202, you really got to look at kind of the effect of the other provisions. And yeah, it suppresses the vote because it makes it harder to vote, and it makes it easier for people's legal votes to be cast aside. And probably the worst part of it are the provisions, the takeover provisions, which actually allow the state election board controlled by the General Assembly, the Republicans in the General Assembly, to go into local elections boards and basically take them over. And why is that significant? It's significant because at the local level, that's where all of the decisions are made in terms of precincts and precinct lines and, you know, which absentee ballot applications are we going to accept?

Which ones are we going to reject? What about early vote hours? All of those things. And so when you go in and you take control from the locals, because you don't control the locals, with the intent to drive down the vote in certain areas, and specifically areas of the state that tend to have high minority populations, I don't think there's any question that the whole intent of this law was to suppress the vote. I think for us, obviously, everybody's fighting it in the courts, and we need to let that play out. But we have an election to think about in 22. So it's important for us to educate ourselves, educate our voters, and make sure that we know exactly what we need to do to make sure that

anyone that casts a legal vote, that that vote actually gets counted at the end of the day. And when we were raising the alarm about this, when that law was passed, a lot of people were saying, oh, you're being alarmist. Not much is going to happen. Not much is going to change. But then this week we see a story even that Georgia Republicans were purging black Democrats from county election boards. I'm not sure if you saw that story. And do you think that's just the natural evolution of this law? Do you think that's and do you think that's where the rest of the state is headed? That's what they're trying to do. I mean, it used to be that what we what we tried to do at the local level was to have to make sure that people, you know, believe that the system was OK, not corrupted by partisan politics. And so we tried to do where two Democrats, two Republicans and then kind of a nonpartisan head, because we need people to think that elections are legitimate. And so there was a real effort by both sides to do that. And then what we've seen, what you just mentioned,

is Republicans coming in and basically purging these local boards of Democrats, tend to be Black Democrats, so that they can put partisans in place that they know are going to make decisions that actually, you know, call the balls and the strikes for the Republicans. In this instance, we saw it in the General Assembly last time I saw in a special session. We're going to kind of continue to see that happen. And. You know, it's one of those things where you see it and you know it can happen. But when it actually kind of starts to roll out, it's really unbelievable. I mean, Republicans aren't even trying anymore to pretend that they're for good government or integrity of the vote. It really is just about holding on to power. Well, that leads me to my next question, too, here is that there seems to be so many non-serious yet dangerous people in government today.

Now, how important is it to have adults in the room again as we march forward? It's incredibly important. I mean, it's almost like we are in the middle of this Trump fever dream in Georgia, especially in terms of Republicans. And the base has become so radicalized here on that side, that if you don't, you know, plead, you know, loyalty to Trump, or if Trump doesn't like you, then you're not going to get elected, or you're going to have major problems. I mean, we see this with the Kemp-Purdue, you know, primary challenge. And it's not that Kemp isn't conservative or that he doesn't push the same policies that Trump did, just that Trump doesn't like him. And so he's going to put up Perdue, who got beat by, as Kemp has said, a 33-year-old guy. I mean, but somehow he's going to defeat Stacey Abrams. I mean, it's just a complete joke here.

And, but if you don't, if you don't pledge fealty, you know, to Trump, then you're dead in the water. And so what we see is we see really actually serious people that can, let me say this, people that can be serious, not being serious, because it's more important to them to be elected or reelected than anything else. And it's really, you know, it's corrosive. And it just kind of builds this environment where you can never moderate and you can never kind of come to the table. You can never be serious because you care more about the radicalized base than you do the people of Georgia. And then to build on that, would you say, you know, is Georgia the state of Marjorie Taylor Greene or is it the state of Stacey Abrams?

You know, what's interesting is that Georgia is the state of both at this point in time. And that's, that is what you're seeing kind of, you know, you go to the national level and people in other states are like, what the heck is going on? But I mean, it is that polarized, right? Stacey Abrams, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and there are constituencies for both. And it really is a fight of good versus evil. And that's why it is important for serious people to run. That's why it is important not just to check out of the system. Like a lot of folks are like, why are you even running?

Like this is, it's ugly, death threats, all of that. But my response to them is there isn't an alternative. I mean, because if serious people don't run, then we basically just kind of cede our entire state to people that we know are in it for themselves and really aren't in it for the people. I have one more to that effect, State Senator. How about Kanye West having a publicist on behalf of Donald Trump go in to threaten election workers? You couldn't even read this if this was like the onion. I mean, how is that even a real thing? Well, you know, it is unfortunately a very real thing. And that person needs to be prosecuted. I mean, what we really need to figure out is where was this coming from? Did anybody tell Kanye to do that?

Like, what are the communications? Who knew about it here in the state? Because that's also what we've seen is that a lot of elected officials here on the ground, GOP elected officials, really have been complicit in everything that's been going on. I mean, I was part of that clown car hearing that Rudy Giuliani and the Trump legal team kind of brought to the state capitol, where they had all of these purported experts testify and basically say there was all this fraud and the election was stolen. It was a joke. It was a complete joke. But they were enabled to do that by state senators that were serving here.

And there weren't any consequences for those state senators. And in fact, now you have one of them running for lieutenant governor who has gotten the support of Donald Trump, kind of an attaboy for doing exactly what Trump wanted him to do. So yeah, look, I think we've got to have prosecutors out there. We've got to have lawyers out there who are doing the right thing and going after folks, especially folks who are threatening election officials. Otherwise, we're not going to even have people who want to be election officials or want to volunteer at precincts. And again, then who's left? Who's left actually making sure that no one's going to

basically steal our democracy? Well, Senator Jen Jordan, we're glad that you are running for Attorney General of Georgia. And we're also honored that you are running for attorney general of Georgia. And we're also honored that you joined us on the Midas Touch podcast today. We appreciate all you've done, all you fight for and are fighting for. And we hope you come back on the show again in the future. Thank you all. I really, really appreciate it. And our Jordan, Jerdie, as the new nickname is.

Jerdie. Just embrace it. I've learned to just embrace it. You want to show them how an ad reads done? Absolutely. All right, Ben. This nickname is. Jerdie. Justin Bryson. I've learned to show him how an ad reads done. Absolutely. All right, Ben, this is what you got to do. Christmas. Tis the season to deck the halls and exchange presents with loved ones. But over the past 10 years, a new tradition has emerged.

Binge watching low budget made for TV holiday movies. And the battle to have the highest-rated Christmas movies gets more intense every year. The newest season of The Business Wars podcast from Wondery dives into the competition between Hallmark, Lifetime, Netflix. While their films may be full of goodwill and cheer, the war for ratings is downright hostile. Listen to Business Wars Christmas Movie Wars on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free by joining Wondery Plus

in the Wondery app. That's how you do it, Ben. That's how you do it. It's a great ad read, Jordy. I mean, I see why Jordy's the number one ad reader, according to our listeners. Brett is the number two and me at 9%. It was funny, Brett, I didn't see your comment in the chat when I actually did get very upset about the poll. And then I scrolled up and you were like, I'm going to be very upset. Yeah. For those listening, I said, we did a poll in the YouTube chat and we asked who does the best ad reads. And by a sizable margin, Jordy came through a number one or Jordy came through a number one. I came through pretty far behind a number two.

And Ben was a very, very distant number three. And I had commented kind of right away, like, please don't let Ben see this because this will really hurt Ben's feelings. And sure enough, that's when he saw it. I didn't see it. Then I was just scrolling up to see comments that I had potentially missed. And I saw that one after being bummed out. But I want to talk about some serious news, fellas, which is more than 80 have been feared dead, likely to pass 100 dead after tornadoes hit central and southern United States. Devastating tornadoes tore through Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee, collapsing buildings into twisted debris and claiming so many lives in Kentucky

alone. The state's governor said more than 70 people could have died after one of the toughest nights in Kentucky history. Our hearts go out to everyone who's been affected in the region and family members of those affected in the region. And I think it's important that we cover this on the Midas Touch podcast because here's just an observation that I have. This is a national tragedy. This is a bipartisan issue of helping people in these states and helping people and their families who have been affected. This should never, ever have been a partisan issue to have a president like Joe Biden, who gave a somber speech about this to immediately provide emergency aid, you know, to work across lines, even with, you know, Mitch McConnell, and even with people like Rand Paul, who, you know, Rand Paul previously objected to hurricane aid, you know, in New Jersey,

Gulf Coast, hurricane aid, you know, maybe just play some of the videos. Let me play this one about the Gulf Coast hurricane aid and then play Senator Rand Paul talking about New Jersey's request when New Jersey went through a devastating hurricane that claimed many lives and caused significant damage. What he said. Let's start off with Senator Rand Paul's response to Gulf Coast hurricane. Reserving the right to object. We have now crossed $28 trillion in debt. We borrow more than $2 million every minute. The deficit last year was over $3 trillion. The deficit this year will be over $3 trillion. There's a trillion dollar wish list out there for everybody. Everybody wants something. And somebody says, oh, there's money in the treasury. Guess what? There's not. There's a

big hole, a big black hole in the treasury. $28 trillion worth. So we do have this one asset. And when we sell it, we should do it to pay down the deficit. We shouldn't do it to expand government further. So I object to this because we're $28 trillion in debt. We shouldn't do it to expand government further. So I object to this because we're $28 trillion in debt. We don't have any money and we should be fiscally conservative as we profess to be. Now play the clip on his response to aid in New Jersey with respect to the devastating hurricane that impacted that state a few years back. Kind of sad and cheap that he would use the cloak of 9-11 victims and say, oh, I'm the only one who cares about these victims. Hogwash, if he cared about protecting this country, maybe he wouldn't be in this gimme,

gimme, gimme, gimme all the money you have in Washington or don't have. And he'd be a little more fiscally responsive and know that the way we defend our country, the way we have enough money for national defense is by being frugal and not by saying, gimme, gimme, gimme all the time. All right. I think you just ratcheted up the battle among libertarians and the New Jersey governor. He's responding to Chris Christie there who had requested aid for the hurricanes. Let's be clear. Rand Paul is someone who voted for the Trump tax cuts that increased the deficit by trillions of dollars. Rand Paul is someone who did not support funds to 9-11 victims. You know, Rand Paul, we could play clips all day on this podcast of ran paul but

the purpose is give me give me give me give me give me get like how fucking sick is that like after a national disaster when people are suffering and we saw like our families and everyone we knew during hurricane sandy we saw people go through it and people's homes just devastated in long island in new york and ran Paul, when people in their time of need, when they were hurt the most, Rand Paul kicked them while they were down. And now that it's impacting his state, he's the first person to rush to President Biden to write a letter demanding that the government provided aid. And it's a good thing we have a president now who speaks for all Americans instead of Trump, who would require Rand Paul, I guess, to go on TV and praise him and then throw some paper towels at him from across a room. But we have a president who actually

understands what it means to be a president of the United States. And in times of crisis, whether it's an attack like 9-11 or whether it's a natural disaster like these horrific tornadoes, being a leader and being a part of the United States is about defending all of us in these times of need. And we're lucky. And Rand Paul is lucky as hell that we have President Biden, despite all the horrific things that he has said about him and despite him, he himself never providing the say to other people in need over these past few years.

It's just really such a disgusting attitude from Rand Paul. Like, it's not that it's unexpected that these clips exist and that he said this shit, but it's just looking back on it, it's like, man, how heartless can you be? Just from a human standpoint, how heartless can you be? At least have some consistency in your beliefs. If he said, New Jersey, you're on your own. 9-11 victims, you're on your own. And then Kentucky gets destroyed and he goes, you know what, federal government, we got this. We'll take it from here. I'd at least have a little respect for him in terms of intellectual honesty and consistency, but he is a fake

conservative. He is a fraud, this guy. And the fact that anybody listens to him or takes any of this, I don't understand how anybody takes any of this conservative bullshit at all at face value. I mean, they're all such hypocrites. And so I want to say this, you know, again, this is a bipartisan issue. Someone like Rand Paul should be requesting aid and aid should immediately be given. But we should not ever be politicizing these issues as he did. That was the point of playing those clips. I want to make another observation too. What will inevitably happen, and this is why I want to cover

this in this podcast and give it the attention it deserves, is we've become so desensitized to death in this country unless the death affects someone in our immediate family. And even then we see such a desensitization when it comes to COVID deaths in families of anti-vaxxers and people who don't believe in COVID. I mean, this is a national tragedy that should be talked about every day. When there's the news, this is the type of story that we should be hearing about.

We should come together as a nation. In the past, we would have concerts and charity events and ways to help people who are victims of disaster. And I fear that this is just going to be part of one news cycle. And then everybody moves on to the next disaster, as with school shootings that happened, as with the COVID death numbers, as they approach ever closer to close to a million Americans. And it just is so disheartening when you see people primarily on the right try to downplay mass death, whether it's in the context of gun violence, whether it's in the context of COVID deaths, or whether, as we saw with Rand Paul, these national tragedies. And we all do need to come together on some common sense issues and common sense areas. And when you see someone like the state senator who we had on this podcast, Jen Jordan, that's someone who speaks from the heart. There's not this, the speech, and again,

everybody watched the speech that she gave on the house floor in 2019. And she's basically saying, you men in government are talking about abortion like a philosophical concept. And she says, you know, I'm a woman, you know, I've had ultrasounds, you know, I've experienced, you know, this situation and I'm telling you what the decision is like. And I'm speaking to you from the heart of what a personal experience of an American was like, who is confronted with having to have difficult conversations with doctors and with faith leaders and others. And then you have the GQP basically turning this into just like talking points that take the humanity out of politics. And we need to restore the humanity back into politics. And again, what should be

covered on the news every night? Here's what my agenda would be, exactly what we covered on the podcast today. Focusing on every single day that the woman's right to choose and childbearing person's right to choose is another jeopardy and what that could actually mean and the implications of that. What we should be covering every single day is the memorandums that are coming out and all of the evidence of the coup attempt by Donald Trump with the great degree of specificity of the Secretary of Defense, others in Trump's inner circle from his chief of staff who were actively plotting a coup and that a coup took place. What should we be covering? National tragedies and what we can do as Americans to help each other out. That's what we should be covering. And it's such, I'm so honored to have this platform at Midas Touch to be bringing real news back into the fold here. And, you know,

Brett, I just want to say it before we bring in another guest, Grant Stern. I mean, you commented about CNN bringing in like a, like a Trumper, like who are they bringing in and why are they bringing in this like rabid Trumper to CNN? Yeah. So let me, let me clarify for a sec. So, you know, longtime Fox news Sunday host, Chris Wallace, who we all know he's been, he was basically Fox news's last bastion of like a semblance of having a real journalist on the staff.

He, I think he's, you know, I think Chris Wallace is a good journalist and there was news that broke the other day that Chris Wallace was leaving Fox News. If you remember a few weeks back, Chris Wallace was one of the Fox anchors who had expressed expressed that he was angry about them allowing Tucker Carlson to run his conspiracy Laden piece about the January 6th attack, basically talking about that it was done by the FBI and Antifa and that this was a false flag operation by the government. You know, Chris Wallace being the one kind of hard news guy on the staff at Fox news said, you know, that's not okay with me. And I think it's no surprise that a few weeks later that he announced his departure. He didn't say that was the reason for his departure, but I'm sure we'll start to hear a lot of news from Chris Wallace once he is willing to open up a little bit about his experience at Fox about that. And CNN swooped him up instantly. He got a job at CNN Plus, which is their streaming service.

I guess everyone has a streaming service, something plus. When are we doing Midas Touch Plus? We need a Midas Touch Plus. Exactly. Who is subscribing to CNN Plus? You got to hate yourself to some degree, right? Like I watch a lot of cable news. I watch CNN, MSNBC. I watch all of it. I'm not getting a subscription service to it. That just seems like crazy. Please have more self-respect. Have more self-respect than that, please. I really would love to see the numbers on that. It's got to be fewer people than listen to this podcast, right? Who's getting- Really bad at CNN Plus.

I'm just, I mean, go for it. I mean, the only reason I could, I know I got sidetracked here. The only reason I could consider getting CNN Plus, I guess, would be like for the Anthony Bourdain show or it's like documentaries and things like that. But I cannot fathom who would want to have this app. Sorry, CNN. But anyway, I'm not sorry because in addition to hiring Chris Wallace, who I think is in all, for all respects, a good hire, they hired Alyssa Farah. Farah, Farah, I don't know. I don't spend too much time worrying about the names of these Trumpers. But she is basically a half a step removed from Kellyanne Conway, I would say. And so what did CNN do?

They thought it was a good idea to make her a correspondent for the network. So they put Chris Wallace, a great straight news guy, then they they thought it was a good idea to make her a correspondent for the network? So they put Chris Wallace a great straight news guy Then they put somebody who was a Trumper and the only reason the only justification for it was that she thinks January 6th was bad But she supported Trump throughout the rest of it She was one of the lead Propagandists at the White House spreading all the fake news spreading all the bullshit and CNN felt that this was a good hire so i was talking to the brothers over the weekend and i said i have a conspiracy theory about cnn uh and it might sound crazy let me get out my tinfoil hat for a second but i'm curious to see if the listeners and the watchers agree with me here at all but here's my theory

it's that cnn has been struggling to find its place in the media landscape. They're sort of been kind of in the middle. They're kind of hated on by all sides. People who are more liberal minded, who are more left leaning, watch MSNBC in much greater numbers. People who are the full Trumper, MAGA, fascist, they're all in on Fox News. And if not Fox News, they're all in on Newsmax and OAN. And you see Fox News, their move to deal with that issue is they're going to move further right. So they got rid of, they're now done with Chris

Wallace. Now they're the Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham conspiracy network. So they're moving closer towards Newsmax and OAN than ever before. That's their shift. So what I think is happening, and I could be crazy, I don't know, you tell me, but what I think is happening is CNN is looking at the media landscape. They're saying, okay, Fox is going far, far, far, far, far right. We have MSNBC on the left, theoretically. And what do we do? How do we get an audience? And I think they are kind of lining up to be the audience of the kind of center right.

And I think what they want to do is become the Fox News of five, 10 years ago. That's kind of the trajectory that I think, at minimum, I think they're experimenting with this concept. I'm not saying this is like the plan they have laid out, but I think at minimum, they want to see how a Chris Wallace does at the network. They want to see how an Alyssa Farah does at the network. And then they're going to go from there and kind of decide, are we getting viewers by becoming the Fox of five, 10 years ago, or are we losing viewers? And then they're going to go from there and kind of decide, you know, are we getting viewers by becoming the Fox of five, 10 years ago, or are we losing viewers? And then they'll decide where they want to be. But it's clearly a right word shift, in the news. I mean, and being on the platform like CNN will allow him to call balls and strikes and to have serious conversations with people. And so that's a great hire by CNN. I think where they experiment with the other individual that you just mentioned is to see how that plays out and how people think about that and to kind of be center,

but also have some center right conversations to see how that plays out. And I want to be clear about my opinion here. I think that there should be multiple perspectives on these news networks. I don't think you should just only be hearing from one side of people, but where I draw the line is of liars. You can't have liars and propagandists on the network. There should be other Republicans out there or other voices on the right who are honest about what is going on in this country. And those are the voices who I think should be elevated, not people who are full Trump or propagandists for all the years that Trump was in office. Yeah. There's where I want to push back on you slightly is I don't want a personality. I want to get the news. It's what we talk about a lot too. I know that's not what you meant here, but I want the facts.

They're 24-hour cable news stations. They need to fill time and most of their shows are analysis. Jordy? I just can't get a word in people. This is just crazy. Why don't we bring in Grant Stern? Well, before we bring in Grant Stern, can I try my hands at doing a good ad read right now to try to rehabilitate? You got this, man? You got this man. You got this. This podcast is brought to you by better help.

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therapists in all 50 states. And here is the Midas Touch deal. Are you ready? Special offer for Midas Touch listeners. Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com slash Midas. That's betterhelp.com slash Midas, M-E-I-D-A-S. Get that 10% off your first month. And I hope you have the same experience there that I personally had there and continued to have. So, Jordi, without further ado, let's bring in none other than Grant Stern, a multi-hyphenate. I don't even know how to even describe all of the things that you do other than a champion for the people. I don't even want to say, I mean, yes, you're a champion for Democrats and progressive views, but really for our democracy. And I've known Grant now for probably over a decade. I started working with Grant when I was doing police civil rights cases and Grant was

doing work and leading efforts for an organization and a website called Photography is Not a Crime, Pinnock. And I always noticed that whenever one of the stories that I was covering was covered by Pinnock, it got way more coverage, way more social media engagement than any story that was covered by any of the major newspapers. And so Grant and I became great friends. And I was like, and Grant turned around these stories so quickly that were precise, accurate, that held police accountable, bad police accountable. And then he transitioned, you know, and he's still very focused on that and local Miami issues. But, you know, his real focus with Occupy Democrats, with all of the work he does with the Stern facts and all of Grant's own initiatives and Democratic Coalition, you know, Grant Stern's podcast. I mean, he was breaking major stories about, you know,

Russian collusion that all proved to be accurate many, many, many years later. And Grant was writing about those stories like in 2015 during the election, in 2016 during the election. And so I just want people and all the people know you, Grant, but I want people to know that personal connection I have. So when you have news, when you have breaking news, I know it's authentic. I know it's credible. I know it's well-researched and well-sourced. And as we close the Midas Touch podcast today, we want to close with the breaking news story that you have about Sidney Powell. So I'll let you take it away from here. Well, the TLDR is Sidney could be in a whole lot of trouble. I would call this regulatory hell.

There's a lot of laws that govern charitable fundraising, right? And some of them are state specific. In fact, a lot of them are. People always think about registering with the IRS, like a 501c3 or c4. But I caught Sydney failing to register with Florida and uncovered their investigation at the beginning of the year. When I reported on that, she made some very false statements and then published them on her website. And I followed up and I asked the state of Florida, hey, is she telling the truth or not? She says you guys have all of her paperwork. They responded by filing an administrative complaint against her and holding a press conference and they linked to my story inside of the press release saying, hey, there was an

investigation going on. Check out all the details here. Well, that same first story appears to have touched off a problem in a second state. And that's the state of Mississippi. But the bigger problem is that all of those problems that Sidney Powell had in Mississippi, she forgot to tell the regulators in Florida. And this is a major, major no-no. We're talking, there are cases where attorneys have been convicted of felonies for failing to disclose what they're doing to the state of Florida with their charitable fundraising when they have major problems. And what happened with Sydney was a major problem. She got suspended from raising

money in the state of Mississippi over the summer and, oops, forgot to tell Florida while she was hammering out the arrangements of a deal where she admitted to deceptive and false trade practices in soliciting money. So where does it go from here, Grant? Do you think there's criminal implications, regulatory implications, her bar license? I mean, she's in a lot of trouble in a lot of areas and this kind of adds and compounds to that, right? This compounds it, but this is going to be kind of like the dominoes falling effect. You know, like you click the domino over and then one falls and the next and the next. There are like 21 different states where charitable fundraisers have to register and make registration statements, all under penalty of perjury. And Sidney Powell has just gotten in trouble in two of them. But now she's going to probably have to inform the other 20.

This is a big deal. She could get suspended from fundraising in almost half the country. This could lead to bar action, of course, because she's admitted in two different states to making false statements to solicit charitable funds. Right. And the state of Florida, again, I'm just going back to this case that surprised me even when we found it. It's an attorney named Barry Krupkin. He got charged with the same exact thing because the state of Florida is really specific.

They say, if you have a major adverse event, you have to tell us within 10 days, right? It's a 10-day reporting requirement. That event happened on June 28th. As of this past Friday, the Department of Agriculture told me that they had not received anything from her, except for the documents that we've seen publicly reported already. We haven't seen any of these disclosures that she got cease and desisted in Mississippi. She didn't disclose that she's got a consent order in Mississippi. A consent order, as Ben could explain really well,

it's a legal agreement between two parties that has the force of a final decision in some sort of proceeding. So she didn't disclose at all any of those two events. And the state of Florida includes in this list of seven things you have to disclose within 10 days, registering in any other state on advice of counsel if you made a mistake in these disclosures. Right. That's the literal precedent. It was a lawyer who had had problems in the past, didn't disclose that he had a criminal conviction to the state, failed to register as well, and then said, oh, my lawyer said i didn't have to and he still got convicted for failing to file three of these disclosures right and sydney is behind on 15 of them now the funny thing is is that i have to go back to the the secretary i'm sorry the agriculture department in florida today to find out if she made her filing today,

because the last deadline to file was three hours before this broadcast comes out. And the result is they did not get back to me. You know, either way, she's in a lot of trouble for failing to disclose that she registered to raise money in all these other states, and for entering into an agreement with the state of Florida that promised she would comply with everything when she was already in a state of major non-compliance, where she was already hiding an adverse decision in another state. And what amps it up a little bit is that they told many of the other states that they were expecting to enter into this MOU with Mississippi when they registered. So this wasn't something that just kind of happened. Like they really were working diligently to register in 20 different states,

but for some reason didn't take the time to follow Florida's law. And Grant, what I like about your reporting is people aren't going to find this, you know, in any other paper. No one's really digging into these issues because let's be honest, to most press, these are tedious, kind of boring issues that aren't this. It's so easy to cover the federal court in Michigan sanctioning Sidney Powell, and that gets great coverage. Then the media just repeats the other media story. I'll correct you, Ben. The media will report this in like four to six months and will not give Grant credit for this. As Grant knows about a Steve Bannon story. I mean,

Grant is the guy, you want to talk about credibility. Grant is the guy who broke the Steve Bannon fraud, we build the wall story right open. He was the first person to report on that. So if you don't think this is important, well, think again. Well, Grant, where can our listeners, we want to give you the credit, where can they go find this story as we close off the podcast? So this story is going to launch live at nine o'clock tonight at grantstern.substack.com. That's grantstern.substack.com. So they should go right over there and subscribe right now. So you get it emailed to you when it comes out. You know, and I want to thank you guys for bringing that up. You know, I've seen a lot

of reporting about Sidney Powell over the last two weeks and except for the existence of the grand jury report, all of the reporting and, and, and, and a lot of the reporting in that story too, all they've done is just look at my stories and re-report it or report the same thing. And that really all came out six months ago. And I've seen a lot of independent journalists express the same frustrations that they spend a lot of time doing the tedious work of making the requests for the information and doing the write-ups only to have the Washington Post and the New York Times kind of just rip their journalism

and write their own story a few weeks or months later. Well, I wouldn't mind it if they linked back. Yeah, just link back. It's the easiest thing, as reported by Grant. That's all you got to say.

Well, you know what's really ironic here is that if you go to the press release from the Florida Department of Agriculture where they announced the administrative complaint, they linked back to my story. But for some reason, not good enough for some of these mainstream media outlets. I don't know why. I just want to clarify for our listeners, if you're listening to this podcast, this article is already out. So go to grandstern.substack.com. You could read it right now. Thank you, Grand Stern, for joining us on the Midas Touch podcast

and look forward to this and more reporting coming soon, which is on the Grand Stern Substack. Thank you so much, Grant. Thanks for having me, guys. I think we're having a brother ad read competition. It's an ad off. It's an ad off. It's an ad off. This is what the people come to the Midasatch podcast for, people. Okay, Brett, I'm going to let you do sole, which I wear right now and wear every day. Tell our listeners about sole. All right. I'm about to show the people why I am the number two best ad reader on the podcast. Because everybody, today's program is brought to you by sole. It's the sustainable orthopedic

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The Chuck Grassley, Senator from Iowa, he is 88 years old. But this tweet, we talked about his tweets before where he talked about pigeons and he would just randomly write about finding pigeons and he would spell pigeon weird. But this one from December 11th, 2021, this is what the Senator decided it was important to- United States Senator. Let's emphasize, a United States Senator represents a state just spent 45 mins finding out why I don't have history channel negotiations between four channels include history and direct TV results. If I want history channel, my bill go from $65 to 99. I'm not paying 34 for history when not much history, or should I change from direct to dish?

Okay. That is a Senator. Someone take his phone from him. I think he, I think he thought Twitter was like Google or Reddit or something. Or his grandkid. Yeah. That's not a tweet.

I think he thinks Twitter is him's communicating with his grandkid. And it's like, you know,id's like, Grandpa, come on. So these are the people making our laws. These are the people telling us what to do. These are the people telling us that you don't deserve universal pre-K or universal health care. They're people like Chuck Grassley here who sends tweets like this. How about I make a Twitter account, Grassley Tweets, and just put all his best hits up on there. On a lighter moment,

Jordy, you want to talk about sex in the city? Major is a lot of thought. Wait, first of all, I don't even get to the spoilers. Jordy has been watching sex. Jordy.

When, when was the original sex in the city on? I guess let's, let's first establish that sex. Cause Jordy has been the biggest nine 2000 was probably season one. Okay. Okay. So let's, okay. Let's think it was 99-2000 was probably season one. Okay. Okay. So let's say it was 99-2000.

I'll look it up right now as well, just to make sure we get the years correct. Okay? So yeah. Okay. Started in like 1998. Okay? There you go. That was when the- Jordy was the biggest fan of Sex and the City.

Yeah. Now, why is that an issue? Jordan, how old were you in 1998? I was five years old in 98. Okay. And the show concluded. So even worst case scenario, or best case scenario rather, the show ended in 2004. Jordy, how old were you in 2004? I was 11. I was 11. So I watched Doug Funny, Hey Arnold, and you were watching Sex and the City with our family.

Explains a lot about you. Yeah, it explains a lot about you. Now I know both of our parents are either watching or listening to this right now. So they have some explaining to do. But you need to explain what you were doing watching Sex and the City and why it means so much to you. It's the most incredible show that ever exists on HBO. I've not only seen every season of Sex and the City,

I've seen both movies and every season twice. It's just a phenomenal show. You know, as a New Yorker, you find very relatable moments there. I used to watch it with our mother. What were you relating to when you were 10 years old?

Relatable moments? Relatable moments? At the age of five, what did you relate to? Being a New Yorker. You're from the suburbs. You live in Long Island. Being a New Yorker.

Yeah, I used to visit the city. Yeah, no, it was really amazing watching. It was really amazing watching the show. Anytime something exciting would happen, my mom and I would go, ah! It was all very fun. It was a good bonding experience. We're going to have to get the parents on the show. I think it taught me a lot.

I really do. I think there were tons of different lessons to take away from every single episode of STIS. Oh, you got an abbreviation for it. Yeah. STIC. Yeah. STIC. I don't even think that's the letters.

I like that. Jordy says it's very relatable. Anyway, I wanted to share that. So, Jordy, are you watching the new episode? Wait.. Jordy says it's very relatable. Anyway, I wanted to share that. So Jordy, are you watching? Wait, what do you think it's called? Isn't SATC sex and the city? It's not called sex in the city. Oh my goodness.

So this is Jordy's favorite show. And he just learned the actual name of the program. Because it's not all about sex in the city, Jordy. It's sex and sometimes they have sex like in the Hamptons. And yeah, not technically- So Jordy, this is what everyone listens to the Midas Touch podcast for some hot sex in the city. So if you haven't watched Sex in the City, the new sequel series that just came out titled And Just Like That, you could skip this part of the podcast. Or if you just want to be all serious politics today, you could skip this part of the podcast or if you're, you know, just want to be all serious politics today, you could skip this part of the podcast.

But Jordy has some things to say about the new Sex and the City series that was just released. And Jordy, why don't you give us your thoughts? All right. Major spoiler alert. Stop listening now. Start listening in like 16, 97. We already made the disclaimer.

Fantastic. It was all Charlotte's fault. Hands down, without a doubt, it was 100% Charlotte's fault that Big died. And here's why. If Charlotte doesn't make Harry stay that extra night before Big and Harry go off to the Hamptons, Big doesn't have the heart attack coming off the Peloton. It doesn't happen. It doesn't happen.

So that's all I know. I can't really have the conversation because I can't get into the weeds on all the details of the sex in the series. I haven't watched it, full disclosure, but I've heard a lot about this Peloton scene. And so, Jordi, explain what happened with Peloton and your thoughts. We're going to this program right now, bless you. Uh, so when three people are remaining big as a heart attack immediately following a cycle, uh, on the Peloton. Now I could tell you with absolute certainty, Peloton knew 100% how their bike was going to be used and at what the eventual outcome of the bike being used was. And here's why. My background, marketing. I've done product placements in hundreds of different places. There's always someone at every agency that must ask for the script for both the beginning and the end and a synopsis of how their product is going to be used and in what context.

So then Peloton gets all upset. They get upset in quotation marks after the episode airs that Big had a heart attack after using their product and their stock actually plumbed in like 17%. Their stock got destroyed. Yeah, destroyed. But by the way, here's the thing. You had a conspiracy theory. Here's my conspiracy theory here. This was all one big publicity stunt for Peloton. Maybe they didn't know that their stock was going to take the nosedive, but they were so quick right after the whole uproar came out with Peloton to now release a new commercial starring Big from Sex in the City using their bike. So here's where I'm going to disagree with you, okay? Here's where I'm going to disagree with you. Just explain why you can't.

No, I can and I will, and I'm going to right now because the viewers are demanding that I disagree with you. It's part of my job on this podcast, actually, to disagree with you, I think. So I think Peloton did not know about it. I really don't. And they say, Peloton says that they didn't know about it, that they are sticking to that story. And I truly don't. And they say Peloton says that they didn't know about it, that then they are sticking to that story. And I and I truly believe that. I think it's more like a situation. What it reminds me more of is and this is another spoiler. If you haven't watched like the early This Is Us, the show This Is Us. I think this is like when the crockpot burnt down the house and This Is Us. I don't think crockpot gave the okay the okay to use our Crock-Pot to burn down your house, but

they use that product because it's a common household product that people in that show will use. And I think similarly, the Sex and the City sequel used the Peloton without contacting Peloton first because I don't think any company in their right mind would allow their product to be used to give somebody a heart attack when their whole brand relies on health. Now your second part of, oh, but they were so quick to come back with the ad like two days later. I think they're just super smart. I think how a company reacts to a situation like that after their stock takes an 11% nosedive

because of a HBO Max series, I think you could do two ways. You could complain, you could sue, you could do whatever, or you could lean into it in a cultural way that's funny and really own the moment. And they paired up with one, like you said, Jordy, with the big character basically saying like, I'm still alive and promoting the health of the Peloton app by using the sex in the city as the framing, which I thought was brilliant, but I don't think they had that planned. And that's why I give you the, so now that you both have wildly speculated, can I actually give you the facts? Yeah, give me the facts because I'm right. The facts are, this is what Peloton spokespers. HBO procured the Peloton bike on their own. Peloton was aware that a bike would be used in the episode and that Jess King would be portraying a

fictional Peloton instructor. Due to confidentiality reasons, HBO did not disclose the larger context surrounding the scene to Peloton in advance, which I believe that they said the bike was going to be used. And, but they didn't say in what context the bike was going to be used. And someone at Peloton is probably in a lot of trouble right now for, I feel really bad for whoever that accounts. So it's kind of a little bit of a hybrid between what Jordy and I were theorizing. Exactly. But here's the interesting part, and this can maybe be covered on Legal AF. Because the stock dropped significantly, I think the stock dropped as much as, is it 11%? I thought it was 17%, but maybe it was 11%. Significant. The question is, does that constitute a securities law violation?

Do they have a liability to shareholders by engaging in kind of negligent conduct like that, which could have a material adverse effect on shareholders? So could we be seeing a sex in the lawsuit, Peloton litigation from shareholders coming? But anyway, if you're still listening to the show after our Peloton debate, you're a true Midas buddy.

I'm a little nervous to look at the reviews after, but in all seriousness, please leave a five-star review about this podcast and leave a comment when you give the five-star reviews. It very much helps the ratings of the show and the algorithm so that we remain a top podcast on the charts. Also, Jordy's wearing Ho Hold the House Christmas gear and holiday gear.

Sockies. Make sure to get your Sockies. Make sure you've got Sockies. Make sure to get your holiday gear at the Midas Touch merch store. You can just go to MidasTouch.com and then click on the merch link or just go to Google Midas Touch merch and you'll be able to find the stuff. Make sure you get the authentic gear. Yeah, there are a lot of imposters out there, you guys. They're out there. Go get it through our website. Special thanks to our guest,

State Senator Jen Jordan. Thank you to Jerdy. Thank you to Brett. Appreciate all our sponsors, Home Medics, BetterHelp, Wondry's Business Wars, and Soul. We will see you next time on the Midas Touch Podcast. Shout out to the Midas Mighty!