The MeidasTouch Podcast - Remembering January 6th with Capitol Officer Harry Dunn

Episode Date: January 7, 2022

On today’s special edition of The MeidasTouch Podcast, we sit down with Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn as we reflect back on his bravery, along with the tragic events of the January 6 insurrection. The conversation with Officer Dunn is eye-opening as we hear his perspective on the events of that day, why it’s important to hold the insurrectionist accountable and much more. The remainder of the episode, we cover a variety of topics including AG Garland’s public address with updates on the Jan 6. investigation, why Ron DeathSantis is clearly not well & President Biden’s passionate speech as we reflect back on the 1-year anniversary of the Jan 6. insurrection. If you enjoyed today's episode please be sure to rate, review and subscribe! As always, thank YOU for listening! DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS: MAGIC SPOON: magicspoon.com/MEIDAS and use code MEIDAS ATHLETIC GREENS: athleticgreens.com/meidas Listen to The Daily Beans podcast, a women-owned and operated progressive news podcast for your morning commute brought to you by the webby award-winning hosts of Mueller, She Wrote. Meidas Media Network is proud to partner wit MSW Media! Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 Zoomed In: https://pod.link/1580828633 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart. Grocer $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Welcome to the Midas Touch Podcast. Ben, Brett, and Jordy coming to you on January 6th, a date that will live in infamy. We have Officer Harry Dunn, private first class, 14-year veteran of the U.S. Capitol Police. He was there and heroically defended the Capitol from the insurrection. Jan 6th is a date that will live in infamy. It's also a date where we need to reflect, remember what happened, have corrective action, and make sure that never happens again. The

fragility of democracy is something on all of our minds on this January 6th. This is a regularly scheduled Midas Touch podcast. We want to thank everybody for tuning in to the new, the still original content of Midas Touch podcast during the holiday season. We had Anthony Scaramucci, Stephanie Winston-Walkoff, Michael Cohen as guests. Those all did quite well. And those deep dive one-on-one interviews with very compelling guests like

that, I think that's a format that we keep doing occasionally. I think we do the regular news type of format that we do, but I think we occasionally bring in those types of interviews. I agree a hundred percent. And can you just, it's so hard to even imagine that it's been one year. It both feels like yesterday and also feels like a lifetime ago, January 6th. I mean, I remember the day so vividly. I remember, you know, we were just barely celebrating Georgia. We had worked our asses off for months with all those incredible activists on the ground to win Georgia and to take the Senate. And we finally saw victory.

We had such an amazing moment. And the next day, the January 6th insurrection happened. And we barely were able to celebrate our big win and the fact that we were able to mobilize voters and turn Georgia blue. And so I think that was such a, you know, it really drove just a stake through the heart of all of our efforts at that time and showed us that the fight wasn't over. I remember we were actually, I don't know if you guys were on. I don't know if Ben was on at least, but we were scheduled for a podcast on January 6th. Do you guys remember this? You and Ben were on and I was left off. And you were left off. So I remember it was like a podcast with like PBS or something,

a news station. And I think it might've been for TV also. And they, I guess, hadn't been following the news of the day because they'd been producing their show. And we were supposed to do it sometime in the morning when January 6th was going on. And I emailed them because I was just shell-shocked watching what was happening on TV. And I was like, I'm not sure I could come on the show. Like there's an attack on the Capitol right now. And they were like, oh, what are you talking about? Come on down.

What do you mean? Attack? What are you talking about? Come on. It'll be good. It'll be good. I'm like, I don't think you talking about? Come on down. It's fine. What do you mean? Attack? What are you talking about? Come on. It'll be good. It'll be good. I'm like, I don't think you have you turned on the TV. I don't think you understand what's happening here. And then they got back to me and they were like, oh, we see what you're saying.

And we ended up pushing it just an hour so I could like get myself together. And then we did the show. And then I just spent the rest of the day just watching, horrified, watching the speeches that everybody gave that day, watching all the clips from everybody from Ted Cruz to Josh Hawley to Donald Trump Jr. up there to Mo Brooks to Donald Trump, telling people to fight, sending peopleached the Capitol, the moment that they took their, whatever they did to break through the glass windows in the Capitol, go through there. And just, I feared for our country and I fear for our country today, you know, maybe even more, but at least on that day specifically, democracy held. And now we got to do the hard work to make sure that democracy holds not only in big moments like that, in big insurrections and with physical violence, but the insurrections that are happening every single day inside our state capitals and other chambers across

the country. I think your last point there, too, is super sharp. And I just want to emphasize that again. As tragic as that day was, and it was tragic, democracy held that day. So there is a silver lining in everything that took place thanks to the bravery of the Capitol Police officers and everyone on the ground there that was doing the right thing. Spot on, Jordy. And I'm just going to note that you called me Ben, which I'll give a pass to when our guests call me by the wrong name. I didn't call you Ben. He was giving me credit for a good point.

Yeah. You didn't make the point. I made the point. I didn't call anybody Ben. You're confusing all of our guests. I didn't call you Ben. Did I call you Ben? He was giving me credit for a good point. Yeah. You didn't make the point. I made the point. I didn't call anybody first. You're confusing all of our listeners. No one was called Ben, I said, and I just want to reemphasize that point is all I said. No, you definitely said Ben. I mean, you can rewind it. You definitely said Ben, but I thought it was because of the original. If you're in the YouTube comments right now, let us know. Did I say Ben? Let's do a poll. Do a poll for the YouTube. Absolutely. I'll do a rewind right now. We'll play it back. Ready? Here we go. All right, play it, go. Now we got to do the hard work to make sure that democracy holds,

not only in big moments like that, in big insurrections and with physical violence, but the insurrections that are happening every single day inside our state capitals and in other chambers across the country. I think your last point there, too, is super sharp. And I just want to emphasize that again. Yeah, you said Ben. I mean, maybe you were holding that from when Ben was speaking before, but it's okay, Jordy. I'll give you a pass. It's a difficult day. Let me tell you also the threats that we face. So universally, Democrats and rational people are condemning this insurrection.

But to be a radical right wing candidate and that all it is, the right wing today are radicals, they're extremists, they are a terrorist organization, period. That's what the Republican Party is. They are terrorists. And to be a Republican today and to compete at a high level and put yourself in the position to be a presidential candidate, you have to say things like Ron DeSantis said today. Brett, play the clip where Ron DeSantis says that for Democrats, January 6th is Christmas. Today is going to be, I mean, honestly, I'm not going to watch any of it, but you're going to see the D.C., New York media. I mean, this is this is their Christmas, January 6th. OK, they are going to take this and milk this for anything they could to try to be able to smear anyone who ever supported Donald Trump. And who talks about January 6th this way? I mean, I guess DeSantis after yesterday, he could barely talk. What was that press conference yesterday where he was gasping for air?

While we're on that, let's play that clip because this was really unusual and the governor's office has refused to respond to what was going on. For the first few minutes of Ron DeSantis' press conference on yesterday, January the 5th, Ron DeSantis was struggling for breath. He was gasping for air and he almost seemed near tears. And remember, this was just days after DeSantis has been missing for like over two weeks and his press secretary has refused to say where DeSantis went. And finally, when he resurfaced, they basically used his wife's cancer as a shield and said that he was taking care of his wife and she had an appointment on one of the days. Which, by the way, is an incredibly very serious thing that we should all take seriously. But it is at odds with the fact that that evening after they planted that story with Fox News, they all went to a concert, a maskless concert with like his spiritual advisor in this gigantic maskless

crowd. And if you're immunocompromised, that would be the last place that you would want to put someone who's immunocompromised and being treated in a crowd like that. So we have to follow what the actual facts are here. But Brett, play that clip. Semiconductors are a huge issue. If you look at how the supply chain works, we are overly dependent on foreign nations including Taiwan which is a good ally of ours but which is one that, excuse me, which is one that is under really serious pressure from the Communist Party of China and so we have an opportunity to do more here in the United States. And I think the more we can do manufacturing of semiconductors here, the better off we'll be.

So today, I'm proud to be awarding $6 million to build infrastructure that will connect southern Osceola County to the emerging Neo City Technology District. He sounds objectively really horrible there. That is not edited at all. That just played through. That's the first few minutes of the speech that he was giving. And if you listen to the speech, by the way, the speech is he is taking credit for infrastructure money that the Democrats passed and gave to Florida as his own. And he's trying to test- And he's such a clown, Brett. Do you see the hand gestures? He like literally mimics Donald Trump,

including trying to get really fat. That's what I was going to say. He looks doughy, like his body shape. He's doing a Donald Trump. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's how ambitious and sick the man is, literally and figuratively, that he's trying to make himself look like Donald Trump.

The mannerisms, everything he's doing, he's mimicking Donald Trump. But, Brett, going back to the first- You guys think he's trying to make himself look like Donald Trump, the mannerisms, everything he's doing. He's mimicking Donald Trump. But going back to the guys think he's wearing a diaper. I don't know, Charlie, but going back to I'm sure he will one day, you know, as a result of Trump. But going back to the first clip, I think I prefer sick, unhealthy DeSantis than fascist DeSantis. And for him to basically say that this is a celebration for Democrats, that this is like our Christmas. This is about holding the radical right extremists, the terrorists that day, the insurrectionists and those who aided and abetted accountable. This isn't a celebration. What DeSantis is trying to say here,

that the real victims of January 6th were those that spread the big lie and support Trump. Those are the real victims who we should coddle and hold dear and say, oh, it's going to be okay. But no, absolutely not. Because they're being called out on Jan 6th. Yeah, they can't take the fact that they committed one of the most heinous crimes ever committed on American soil. One of the worst terrorist attacks ever committed on American soil, made even worse by the fact that it was done by our own citizens and by our own government and by our own politicians. That's what really makes this so horrific and so horrible. And you have people like DeSantis defending the people who attacked us.

You have people like Lindsey Graham cowering, saying that President Biden made this event political. Let's be clear, the event was made political by a president who sent his political followers to overturn an election to try to attack the Capitol and kill lawmakers so that he could be instilled as the president of the United States despite the votes of a free and fair election. That is what made this political. And President Biden, thankfully, came out forcefully today. And I want to see more of this President Biden. I love saying feisty Biden. I don't know about you guys, but when Biden comes out swinging, he always hits the target every single time. And Biden came out forcefully and wasn't afraid to go after Donald Trump himself and attribute him as the cause of the attack on January 6th and really raise the alarm about the

threats to our democracy. Why don't we play a clip from Biden today where he talks about how Trump is a defeated POTUS. He's not just a former president, he's a defeated former president. Defeated by a margin of over 7 million of your votes. And a full and free and fair election. the Biden speech today, just so I'll tell all of our listeners and viewers, go back and watch the full Biden speech, an absolute takedown of Trump, not using Trump's name, but an absolute takedown of the former defeated loser. By the way, all the words that he used throughout the whole thing, lost, defeated, like he uses all the buzzwords that he knows is really going to get under Trump's skin. You know he's just down in Mar-a-Lago just fuming, just fuming that he canceled his January statement. I can't believe he was going to do a January... Whatever. Why don't you play the clip and then we'll get back to this. I did not seek this fight brought to this

Capitol one year ago today, but I will not shrink from it either. I will stand in this breach. I will defend this nation. And I will allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of democracy. We will make sure the will of the people that's heard, that the ballot prevails, not violence, that authority in this nation will always be peacefully transferred that's the president right there absolutely just comparing that to the trump speeches i mean it's just they're comparing that to desantis i just want a steady normal leader that's all we're looking for. We're looking for steady leadership. And frankly, Brett, we're not poll obsessed on Midas Touch podcast and the Midas Touch ecosystem generally, but I will say this, that America is taking notice of the strong economy. America is taking notice of normal leadership. America is taking notice

of stability, a problem solver in office. And when you are beginning to look at polling for 2022 Congress, you are seeing that in just a Democrat versus Republican, you know, direct matchup that Democrats are being favored. I mean, and that's why we all need to take that energy, though, and push on it. We can't be defeatist here. I'm telling you, we'll win 2022 if we all have the right type of energy, momentum and do the little things like registering people to vote. And here's what we got to do. Also, we got to be able to make sure like we need to be able to set the registering people to vote. And here's what we got to do also. We got to be able to make sure, like we need to be able to set the stage of the conversation. And Republicans are really good at this.

Republicans don't read polling and say, oh, people don't really care about Benghazi. Let's not talk about Benghazi. They go, fuck that. We're going to make everything about Benghazi and we're going to make our people care about Benghazi. And we're going to talk about it every single day. We're going to hold hearings every single day and we're going to make our people care about Benghazi, and we're going to talk about it every single day. We're going to hold hearings every single day, and we're going

to make this the issue. That's what Republicans are effectively good at, and that's all with, you know, that all goes into messaging. That's all communication. Messaging is not just a slogan or a phrase or a single political ad. Messaging is everything that happens that sets the stage of the discussion, and Democrats need to be doing more of that. So I think we need to own this January 6th issue. I mean, this is one of the most horrific things to ever happen to our country. Don't let anybody tell you that voters don't care about this.

We need to make them care about this because our democracy depends on people caring about people who try to overthrow our democracy. We need to make this front and center every single day. And Ben, you had an idea the other day, which I thought was interesting. And you got a little bit of a mixed reaction from, but you even said something like, I think on January 6th, Democrats should pass a simple resolution. What did the resolution say, basically, that you wanted to write? That the American Congress, the House of Representatives, stands firmly with democracy

and condemns any threats to democracy here and abroad and anyone who seeks to aid and abet the overthrow of democracy, period. Words to that effect. And you could wordsmith that a little bit, because it's my view that if you put a statement out there, if you put a resolution that said that and you made people vote on that resolution, I think that you would not get significant votes by the Republicans. I think all Democrats would vote for it. I think you'd probably get about 20 Republicans who would vote for it. I think you would get the rest of Republicans trying to do a debate. This isn't a democracy. This is a representative republic. So they would have that aspect. You would have people basically saying

that this is a deep state ploy and they can't vote in favor of it. You just get people who vote no than a lot of other Republicans would just ignore it. I don't think that's like that's not even being humorous. Like, I genuinely think that's where the vote would break down. There were 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump. So with this resolution, I give another 10 may vote in favor of democracy. But we need to do stuff like that that calls them out. And people would say to me in response to that, we don't need more empty gestures. We need the DOJ to be prosecuting the insurrectionists or we need

meaningful legislation. I agree, but why can't you do both? It literally just took me five minutes. And by the way, I guarantee you, I guarantee you 100% of the people who said that to you also would say the DNC doesn't know how to message. Democrats don't know how to message. Why don't we, we need a, We need a cool new message to go around. And what you don't realize is that is part of messaging. Holding elected officials to the fire, making them vote on simple things, being able to hold up and say, hey, these representatives literally voted against defending democracy. That's what this says. That is all a part of messaging and we have to own it. We have to be fighters.

If you want to win the game, you have to play the game. And that's what we all need to do. Fuck. Brett, Brett's having some technical difficulties on his side. I agree, Brett. That is exactly what we have to do. Now might be a great time just to cut to a quick ad read from our sponsor, Magic Spoon. Ben, you agree? I like that. Oh, agree i mean i love magic spoon i love sponsors that encourage healthy lifestyles you know and growing up no no no no this was my ad read you're not

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Brett was having technical difficulties with his camera. Even though Brett is tech Brett, sometimes when Brett would do very simple tech stuff growing up, I'd be like, I'd call Brett like a hacker. If you'd figure out how to remote control would work. I'd be like, yo, Brett, could you just hack that remote control? What do you mean? And I figure out how to put batteries into it because I'm so not tech savvy. But anyway, tech Brett. Yes, Brett, we're still recording a podcast, man. The podcast goes on. I hate to break this to you, Brett, but just because the machine, the machine. Well, let's bring in our guest, Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn. We recorded this interview yesterday. So for those

watching, you'll see us wearing different clothes. We're not just going to do a wardrobe change when we speak to Harry Dunn. And this was literally right before Trump decided to go and cancel his January 6th presser. So we did get into the at least the idea of Trump holding a presser on January 6th and what it means to Officer Dunn and the other Capitol Police. So let's play the interview with Officer Harry Dunn. We are joined by a very special guest on January 6th. We are joined by none other than Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn. Officer Dunn is a private first class and 14-year veteran with the U.S. Capitol Police. As many of you know, he bravely defended the Capitol during the January 6th insurrection and has been very outspoken. He testified before Congress.

He recently wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post about his experience and the need for accountability. Officer Harry Dunn, welcome to the Midas Touch podcast. Thanks for having me on. I want to say I'm sure you can find somebody better than just just myself. No, I sure everybody knows my name and I guess my Twitter handle and my face and all that stuff now. But I was just a one person amongst many heroes that day. My co-workers, the men and women of the U.S. Capitol Police, the men and women of the Metropolitan Police Department are some of the bravest people I've worked with. And they showed up that day and we did our job and we saved what I like to say is democracy.

So I used to work at the Capitol. I mean, I interned there for Senator Clinton about 20 years ago or so. And so seeing firsthand the bravery of Capitol police officers and all they had to deal with day in, day out. Back then it was anthrax. It was dealing with foreign enemies and dealing with, you know, radicalized, you know, terrorists as well. And people were thinking of, well, you know, Middle East terrorists was right after 9-11 when I was there. But here you have, you know, almost 20 years later, the attack happened from within. I mean, this was inspired by a president of the United States at the time who encouraged it, who aided and abetted it, and is now out there talking about counter-programming Jan 6th to, in essence, celebrate Jan 6th. I mean, when you think through this past year and this year benchmark, I mean, what goes through your mind? You know, when you start talking about, you know, the former president and the people that are like celebrating it and even downplaying it,

what happened that day, I, um, I found a way to, well, through therapy, through my, uh, my close, um, my circle, my friends, my family, um, I don't pay attention to that anymore. It's just noise because it's a detractor and all it will be is to, they're internet trolls. You know, that's what they are. So like you, I'll have conversations with people, reasonable people, even if they disagree with me, but I don't understand how you can disagree with facts.

You know, like once you start disagreeing with facts, then the conversation is over. I'm not going to waste my time on you, my energy, because it's like you're beating your head against a wall and expecting the wall to say, yo, stop, you're hurting me. It's not going to happen. Like that's not going to happen. I focused on people that actually can make a difference, which is why I spent so much time talking with the January 6th committee, writing that op-ed about the lawmakers' responsibility to us, not only the police officers, but us Americans. They have a duty to us, just like we had a duty to them on January 6th. And you wrote that Washington op-ed this week, and in it you wrote, quote, it's deeply offensive and a betrayal of all the law enforcement officers who answered the call that day to suggest that the mob that stormed the Capitol consisted merely of tourists or patriots, or that the attackers were simply keen on hugging and kissing us. And look, Officer Dunn, it would be one thing if that was though solely coming from internet trolls, but

it seemed afterwards that this was a moment where all politicians could rally together and focus on the message of supporting democracy and condemning it. But you have a lot of politicians and they're all on the Republican side. That's not a partisan thing to say. It is a fact on the Republican side who are a lot of the ones that are putting this messages out that this was that make these suggestions that these terrorists who stormed the Capitol were patriots that day. Does that just drive you insane? Not anymore. Like I said, not anymore. I'm not focused on that. When it comes to maybe any congressperson or senator that may have thoughts differently about what actually happened on January 6th, whatever, I don't understand how

you can watch what happened and describe it as something else. So I'm not even going to attempt to, like, like I said, stop banging your head against a wall. It's going to drive you crazy. What can you do? Like, I, one thing about being a police officer is I like solving problems, right? Like, everybody addresses all these problems that we have out there. All right. Give me some reasonable solutions. What can we do? Let's stop talking about the problem. Let's fix it. All right. So if there are no solutions for the problem. Right.

What can you ultimately do? You vote. You change the people that are in office. So that would be my message to you want to commemorate January 6th, just get a bunch of people registered to vote. If anybody listening, if you know somebody that's not registered to vote or doesn't plan on voting, encourage them to vote. I'm not telling you who to vote for. I would never do that. You know, that's not, I'm just a person with an opinion. Just exercise your right, your duty as an American to vote because let's be proactive. How do you solve these problems? These congressmen and their thoughts, they're not going anywhere. So what can you do about it realistically? And one of the solutions, though, in addition to vote and

the proactive measures we could take to support politicians who support democracy, though, is to have accountability. You know, I also host a legal podcast called Legal AF, where we've been covering a lot of the sentences that have been given some of the earlier ones, like for the QAnon shaman person and all those other people were having relatively light sentences. Some of the people who were sentenced were bragging that it was going to be a vacation where they could lose weight. You've started to see some stiffer sentences. Judge Chotkin is one judge who's sentenced people to stiffer sentences. But have you seen that? Do you feel there's been sufficient accountability and is more accountability needed? No, I don't think there's been enough

accountability yet. There's nothing that's been done yet to prevent this from happening again. Like the purpose of punishments a lot of times are to deter people from doing things again, you know, teach you a lesson, right? To deter things from happening again. That's what I interpret punishments to be, to deter things from happening again. But there's been nothing. I don't know how closely you've been following sentences, but one of the guys Joker got sentenced to 20 days in jail to be served on weekends. Like,

get the hell out of here. Like, are you kidding me? But no, there's been no, there's not been enough. But I think that's why it's so important for the investigations to continue and for full transparency to come out. Because, you know, right now everybody just has opinions about what happened, right? There's some facts out there, but a lot of it is just, oh, we know this to be a fact or we know this to be an opinion. Let's get all the facts out there. So now it's not open for interpretation in any kind of way. Just put the facts out there and then let people decide for themselves, hey, all right, this is what really happened. So I know what I went through. I know what my coworkers went through. I want the entire public to know. I don't know why it happened, though. I still don't know why it happened. I got my opinions, sure, but let's paint the full picture where it's not anybody's opinion anymore. It's not open for analysis. This is

what happened, period. Well, Officer Dunn, I'm wondering, could you take our listeners and viewers through what happened that day from your perspective. When did you exactly really know that kind of all control was lost, that this was bigger than a protest out in front of the Capitol? Like, when did you have that kind of, oh, shit moment? When did you realize this is an insurrection? Did you fear for democracy? Did you fear that our, our you know the vote count was going to be stopped i'm just curious from your perspective as somebody who lived it i would love for you to just you know kind of describe that so so the day of um sure we've gotten i think it's close to say i in my 14 years of working it might be safe to say close to a thousand protests over First Amendment protests.

And from any any walks of life, all kinds of topics, all everything, it doesn't matter. We've dealt with so many protests and that's kind of what I was expecting that day. Didn't matter the crowd, didn't matter their political affiliation, doesn't matter. Our job is to allow people to exercise their First Amendment right, which everybody has a right to do.

No matter how outlandish it may sound to somebody else, that's their right to do so. And I think it's important to keep that perspective that people are allowed to have different views, different opinions. So that's kind of what I was expecting that day. There were hundreds and hundreds and thousands and thousands of people gathering at the Capitol that day. It was a large protest. Sorry to interrupt, but what was the preparation beforehand? What were you kind of told?

What were you expecting at that point? We were expecting a First large protest. Sorry to interrupt, but what was like the preparation beforehand? Like what were you kind of told? What were you expecting at that point? We're expecting a First Amendment protest. Maybe some civil disobedience. People may get arrested. Like I said, I've dealt with close. I haven't counted the exact number, but I don't think it would be off to say upwards of a thousand protests in my career. But I just thought it was going to be, you know, civil disobedience. I had no, in my wildest dreams, had no thought of people breaching the Capitol and attempting to stop the certification of the election. You know, while it was going on, I didn't have, I didn't process all this stuff. My number one thought was let's survive. Let's get home. I want to go home. while it was going, going, I, I didn't have, I didn't process all this stuff. My, my number one thought was let's survive. Let's get home. I want to go home. You know, I want to get home to my family. I want to get home. I want all my coworkers to go home. I want to be safe. Um, so we weren't, I wasn't really processing what this was about, why it happened

and all that stuff. I was, let's keep everybody safe so we can get home to our families. As the day went on, you start to, yeah, I heard the things that they were saying, you know, Trump sent us, this is the people's house. We're not going anywhere. We're welcome here. Where's Nancy Pelosi? We're going to hang Mike Pence. Like you heard those things, but like I said, I wasn't processing. I wasn't like dissecting their words. I'm trying to get these jokers out of here so I can go home to my family. And had you heard Trump's speech at that point?

Have you, had you heard any of it or you were just seeing it from the perspectives of the protesters? No, just the perspective of the protesters. We were outside. We were, I must have started like seven in the morning. So I didn't have time. Like I was working, you know, obviously hindsight,

I've seen it since obviously. Um, but, uh, just want to point out during that day, the thing that the moment that said, all right, Oh shit, this isn't just a normal protest day was, uh, when they found the two pipe bombs at the RNC and the DNC. And my opinion is they were used to divert police officers away from the Capitol, which it did, which allowed it to be an even softer target. And, you know, there we are, outnumbered and overrun and overwhelmed by Trump supporters. And I want to go to that point right there because we called them protesters initially

and at first it seemed like a protest, but then it was clear that it was much more, that these were not protesters, these were rioters, these are insurrectionists, these are domestic terrorists in many cases. I think it's fair to say, though, like real quick, you know, I try, I am a very try to be fair, play both sides kind of thing, kind of person. And you did have people saying that there were people there that got caught up in the moment and blah, blah, blah. I believe that. I don't believe everybody that was there that day went with the intention of storming the Capitol. I don't believe that. I don't. But that was there that day went with the intention of storming the Capitol. I don't believe that. I don't. But they did. They did. And they need to be held accountable for it.

Sure. I don't care what your intentions is. A lot of times in crimes, intent doesn't even matter. And your more serious one. Sure, it does when it comes to sentencing. But it's still a crime. And that's that. Sure, there were people there, I'm sure, who had no intention of storming the Capitol. But guess what? You look up and they're in the Capitol and they know, oh, gosh, I didn't mean to, but you're here now and you need to be unaccountable. Yeah, you can't take that back. If you commit a murder, you can't be like, oh, well, I didn't intend to commit a murder earlier that day, but I just got caught up in the moment. Correct. Although the sentencing may be different for that, as you said.

But to acknowledge it is not just a mistake or something. No, man, that's not how this works. Right. And the demographics of the crowd, as you said, these are clearly Trump supporters. These are clearly people who were sent from the event. These were not Antifa. This was not Black Lives Matter. Can you just give us a breakdown of what you see and just

all these lies? They told us, they told Trump sent us here. They told us they were with us and that we were breaking our oath to the country by not letting them in to do, to get to the members who they thought were betraying this country. And, you know, they called us traitors and sellouts. And, you know, we told them to leave. And they said, no, this is our house. And, you know, the president sent us. And all this stuff, like, yeah, it's bull. When people say it's otherwise, it's bull when people say it's otherwise.

It's not, that's not accurate. And one of the things that really made me emotional during the public testimony that you gave in front of the January 6th committee was when you spoke about the racial attacks against you that day. What were you thinking when you were experiencing that? And what were kind of the comments made to you? You know, it's, you know, I didn't, I And what were kind of sit down and analyze and process to ourselves and amongst our friends of coworkers about what had happened. It's then when I sat down with one of my coworkers who I'd known, and we were just talking about what we experienced that day and how bad it was.

And some of the things that we went through, some of the things that we saw. And that's where I just became so overwhelmed with emotions. And I just started like crying and I just started telling him what I went through and I got called the N-word and these people just like and that's when I really felt you know

that's when I said like is this America and that's when I was like damn man like is this what we've come to it's a scary, sad feeling. I had a sense of helplessness. It wasn't like anything that I can do because there was nothing I could say. It was nothing I could do to stop that moment, you know? And I don't think there's any words that anybody could say to make sense of that moment. So that's why I felt like so helpless.

One of the things that was also an incredibly powerful statement that you made in front of the January 6th committee is you said, if a hitman is hired and he kills somebody, the hitman goes to jail. But not only does the hitman go to jail, but the person who hires them does. I use an analogy to describe what I want as a hitman. If a hitman is hired and he kills somebody, the hitman goes to jail. But not only does the hitman go to jail, but the person who hired them does. There was an attack carried out on January 6th, and a hitman sent them.

I want you to get to the bottom of that. Reflecting on those words, is there any kind of thing else you would maybe want to add to that? I botched it a little bit. Like at the end, I was like, you know, the hitman part and the hitman sent them. And I was like, damn, I kind of messed that up. It was funny because I wrote that as I was, like our closing statement,

I wrote that as the other testimony was being said by the other officers. And, you know, like it's just serious. Like and everybody, you know, people started running with it. Trump is the hit man and all this stuff. And, you know, sure, he may have been the ringleader, but if there are anybody else that had anything to do with it, those riling those guys up, funding those guys, supporting, encouraging those guys, whether it be all the way up to the

president, his staff, anybody, anybody that, or just some guy on Twitter that say, hey, you should do this. Like, I don't care if anybody can be the person who hired the hitman. Anybody can be that guy. But it doesn't exclude all the way up to the presidency if nobody's above the law, I guess is the point that I'm trying to make. Nobody's above the law. If anybody had anything to do with it, they need to be held accountable. And I think that's one of the frustrations that a lot of people have, me included. And I understand that this is a massive, massive investigation. This is a massive crime, involves the President of the United States, involves members of Congress, members of senators. there are these lower level people really be prosecuted. And like you said, the sentences

overall have not been very strict at all. Some people are being let out for family vacations or to go to baseball games or football games. I mean, from the outside, it looks kind of ridiculous and I'm looking at statements from the DOJ and things. And like I said, I'm not, I think the DOJ is actually doing a better job than a lot of people are giving them credit for, but I share their frustrations and how they're going after these lower level people and aren't focusing on the ringleaders and focusing on the people who actually had the power, the people who paid for the buses, the people who incited and encouraged them. That's fair. But like, just let's think about this for

a second. Like, I mean, this isn't a bank robbery that they're solving, you know, like this is possibly an attempt to overthrow the government. You know, I, what do you compare it to? Like the speed of the investigation? What can we compare it to? Nothing. So I think it's, it's, I gotta say, we control what we can control. We got to stop banging our heads against these walls. Sure. We can have opinions about things and be like, yeah, instant. We need this done instantly. We need justice instantly. We want this instant gratification, but that's not how it works. Like, I mean, even the, the, the former president, he's doing, he's within his legal right to appeal all the way up to the

Supreme Court, which he's doing. So we can't be hypocrites and say, that's bull. They shouldn't, like, we got to be like, as much as we disagree with it, we cannot be hypocrites. Like, he's within his right to do that. So let him do it. Let the, let the, let the, the criminal justice system, the legal process all play out. And then hopefully at the end, you know, justice will prevail. That's what we want. But it just like, damn, it takes so damn long. You know, it's like it's like, all right. Y'all look like y'all like barbecue. It's like smoking ribs or some brisket. You smell it. It smells so damn good. Right. Like, damn, come on. But you got to wait eight, nine hours.

Like, damn, come on. Why does it to wait eight, nine hours. Like, damn, come on. Why does it take so long? Because it's so damn good. So anything, you got to let it marinate, you got to let it cook, you got to let it smoke. And then you eat that brisket, you're like, damn, this shit was worth it, right? I think that's the best analogy. That's a good analogy. And I'll tell you how long it takes to cook the brisket. Watergate took something like 900, I think it was 928 days in order to fully get all the convictions and everything that they had in that investigation. And this goes much deeper than Watergate. And I think everybody's fear right now is we're looking down the barrel of elections where Republicans might be taking

power. Now, I want to be clear, that's not going to affect the investigations into January 6th. The DOJ investigation is going to live on whether Republicans win or Democrats win or whatever happens in 2022. That doesn't end. So we shouldn't be afraid of that. We need to tell the truth about what happens. Like, correct. Like you just said, a lot of people think, oh, it's done. No, this is not ending. Let's squash false information. But you're right, though. I'll tell you the one difference, though, Officer Dunn. During Watergate, the politicians actually, on a lot of people want to eat the brisket, but you've got radical right fascists who still want to eat a Trump steak knowing that it's a fraud. That's the problem. Well, they might be they might be vegans.

So let's get them some salads or something. We got to accommodate everybody. We got to find a way to make it work for everybody. You know, y'all go eat some lettuce. Well, we'll enjoy this brisket right here. I have a question for you, officer. You do a lot of interviews where you're probably asked a lot of the similar questions. What is something though about you that you just want people to know about you that in the soundbite nature of kind of the media with them asking just the, you know, whatever the kind of usual questions are when you get five minutes, like, you want people to know about who you are that's so cool that's a good question man

because i was just thinking like i'm just this regular dude man like i'm just regular dude man now everybody's looking up to me and i was like and i'm just some regular guy man that says what's on his mind i guess um one thing, that I did think of is that I think whether you're Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative, progressive, it doesn't matter. You can't blindly support people just because they have an R beside their name or D beside their name. I don't agree with everything the Democrats do. And I'm a registered Democrat. I don't agree with every Republican do, but I, I'm a registered Republican. Like, it's okay to distance yourself and just be an individual instead of just part of this whole,

what it seems like a cult, like, you know, even left, right. Like you can't like blindly support people. You have to call out people even of your own party when you're wrong when you disagree with things um and i think that's where that's how we are where we are because they'll say this person can do no wrong like that's not right like everybody has some improvements they can make when they start holding people to these. They they elevate the person above the seat, like the person is becomes what's important. It's not just the seat. Right. The seat of the seat that that person holds is what's important and what what matters. And I think we need to hold that seat to the higher standard and not necessarily the person, if that makes any kind of sense.

Maybe I botched that, too, but I think the sentiment's there. Absolutely. And not to get us to a place again here where we're bashing our heads against the wall, but I am very interested in your opinion on this specifically. Like the Fox News, the OANs, depending on when you watch them, you know, they try and paint a picture that the events of January six was like a PSYOP or some sort of false flag operation. How much, you know, do you think they are to blame for the civil unrest in this country? You know, I don't, I feel like they're smart, they're opportunists and they, they seized an opportunity for some vulnerable people and um i think that's what smart people do they you know they know what happened they know what happened but they also know that nobody went nobody who watches them wants to hear what really happened so they dumb it down a little bit you you know? It's rhetoric

and it's not factual. I don't know if I can necessarily blame them. Like you said, to answer your question, to blame, I like to think about stuff like worded correctly. So to point out, anybody

who promotes any type of violence or you know, lies or misinformation, um, should be held responsible and accountable. Uh, whether that's right wing, whether that's left wing, it doesn't matter. You can't go out there and start just, if you're a news thing, you can't just be out there spewing your opinion. Like I wrote an op-ed piece. I didn't write a front page piece that's news what i wrote today was my opinion and you know if that's what news shows have become then let's make it these are

opinion shows but for people to get factual news from there that's where that's that's problematic right yes and it's a great point because when they go to court, they argue that they're an entertainment network, that they're not a news network. They said it. It's insanity. And look, you're there firsthand experience. It's incredibly harrowing events. The

party that supposedly is all about Blue Lives Matter, you know, outwardly, that didn't seem to be the case that day. And frankly, it doesn't seem to be the case ever with regards to that. See, that's the thing I see. I, you know, I, I kind of, I get what you're saying, but that's what that's, I think that's why it goes back to, um, supporting people blindly. And just because they are an R or a D, um, you know, I think that it would be cool, like in elections, on the ballots,

you don't have an R or a D next to the person's name. Like let people do their own damn research and make educated decisions about who they're voting for. And they're voting for a person and not a party now. And I think that's where we come,

we run into problems a lot. Because like I said, I don't necessarily i i don't necessarily i don't believe that republicans generally say that blue lives don't matter i don't think that anybody would say that i hate that term anyway the blue lives matter like i i just hate the term um you know i i just never liked it anyway, because it's it just seems like a protest to the Black Lives Matter protest. So the term Blue Lives Matter didn't really even exist until the term Black Lives Matter did. To my knowledge, I could be wrong, but if someone fact checked that for me.

That's totally right. You're spot on on that one. But that's why I just it's like, come on, man. But I don't. But to go back to my point, I don't believe that they will reasonably say they don't support blue lives like no i it's it's probably stopped like it's all it is just talking points but do you think that cognitive dissonance like there like you know the party that says all the time blue lives matter blue lives matter and then the capital riots happen the insurrection happens and they go, oh, not those lives. Well, not even that, man. Just think that it's all just propaganda.

Because you look at the people that are saying all this crap and they'll have like God first in their country. Like, wait, God would have did what y'all did? So it's just good talking points. That's all it is, man. Because God don't, I'm a Christian. God, we got two different gods. That ain't what I learned at Sunday school, man. Like, you know? So, I mean, just, it's crazy, bro.

Like I think it's all just people just making talking points to what sounds good. They're good. They're catchphrases, they're slogans. And nobody even knows what the hell it means. Right. You know, like how many people I'd be willing to bet. I'd be willing to bet a large portion of people that have MAGA that say the word MAGA don't even know what it stands for. They just see that. They just say that, oh, you know, hey, the Republicans wear this hat. So I'm aware, too. Like, you probably know what it means. So, but that's why I think it's important to educate people and stop supporting people blindly. On both sides, Republican, Democrat, doesn't matter. And then to that about supporting

people blindly, I mean, there's still certainly a lot of people in this country that support the 45th president just with this blind allegiance. On the anniversary of January 6th, said President Donald Trump is set to hold a press conference at Mar-a-Lago. What type of message do you think that sends to the American people? Again, I ain't worried about whatever, man. I know where I'll be on January 6th. I'll be with my co-workers and people that actually want to honor what happened that day and remember what happened that day. That's where I'll be. So that's where you got to surround yourself with people, like-minded people.

Yeah, I'm not worried about that. But again, they have the right to do that. So they're within their rights to do that. What they don't have the right to do is violently storm the Capitol and hurt people and, you know, attempt to overthrow, stop the certification of election through violence. You know, suck it up, vote again in four years. You fear January 6th can happen again?

Yeah. Yeah. But like I said, it's not just necessarily at the Capitol, but at state houses. I mean, hell, you see what's happening at school board meetings now. Like, everything's crazy, man, nowadays. And it's scary to think that our country is, like, what the hell happened to it, man? You know, it's scary. But that's why I don't have a reasonable answer. How can you fix it besides vote? I don't know. As we conclude the interview, though, knowing that that exists and that there is a fear of that being repeated, though, but do you see some things that have

happened since January 6th, though, that gives you hope? I mean, is there a hopeful message to bring out of it as we're approaching, as we do approach January 6, 2022? As ugly as January 6 was for the people watching on TV, for the lawmakers in the building, for the Capitol Police, who endured unnecessary horrors that day. Just for the concerned Americans, as bad and as ugly as it was, democracy went on that day and it went on that night and it still continues to exist. So we got to keep that mindset that you can't just take for granted

that democracy is going to be there. Everybody has a part in it. Everybody has to do their part to help preserve it. Like you can't get too comfortable because there are evils out there that would sound like a damn Marvel movie. There are evils out there. No, no, but yeah. So that we have to, we can't just take it for granted and just say that it's always going

to exist right we have to everybody has it everybody has a job to do the police our police let the lawmakers legislate um you know let the judges judge like everybody and let the american people decide who the people that are voting excuse me who the people that are judging and making the laws. So everybody has a job to do when it comes to protecting democracy. So, yeah, democracy is fragile. And I think February 6th exposed it. And fortunately, the you, your brave co-workers at the Capitol Police, the Metropolitan Police, you know, you were able to you were able to defend the building,

you know, democracy was able to live on. As we reflect, though, the fragility of it is something that I take away. And the question is, do we want to be a nation of laws? Do we want to be a nation of democracy? Or do we want to be a nation of you know the individuals who violently storm the capitol building is that what america is and it is i think so but real quick i mean i don't know you know that may be a rhetorical question that you were asking but i think that everybody wants a nation of laws that suit their interests though you know not that's, you can't have it, you don't get everything that you want, you know? So it sucks. But yeah, I think people do want it. Everybody, I think,

wants a nation of laws, but the people that were there on January 6th want laws that they write, that they agree with, that they want. How are you doing that? You look at, yeah, you know,

you look at some of the new laws that are being proposed for voting rights. And I'm not going to get on my political horse right now because I'm just talking about my personal experience of what I went through. But you just look, people want laws that suit them, you know? How are you doing now? Are you able to put on the uniform? Are you able to? Yeah, I went to work january 7th yeah i was like yeah yeah i'm back you know i've been working and uh i'm proud to be at work you know i take my job seriously um like i said earlier i it's it's bigger than me um thousands and millions of people are counting on me to protect

whatever congressman or woman or senator is in that seat. And that's my responsibility to do so. That seat's a revolving door, you know? It'll be a new person after this next person, and it was a person before. It's a revolving door. So it's important to always make sure that seat is available for who America decides to put in it. And I'm just interested,

14, 15 years ago, when you decided to become a Capitol Police officer, is there a reason why you chose Capitol Police versus somewhere else? Is there? Answer to my job application first, man. No, man, you know,

no, I put in for it. It's a great, it's a great organization. It was, you know, I just like what it represents. Um, I, I, you know, I'm from this area. I'm from the Washington DC area. I see the Capitol daily and I just think about it. Like one of the thoughts that I had during my testimony, I never, I don't say this, but, um, you know, I just think like slaves, slaves built the building, slaves built the U.S. Capitol.

And here is my job and my duty, my honor, my privilege to protect their work, protect what they built. So I just thought that was really kind of cool, you know. So here I am. So what would you say, Officer officer Dunn is your biggest weakness? I'm just having to do it. He's not been able to say no to a glass of bourbon. If you were a tree, what kind of tree? Well, we're so grateful to have you on this program as our listeners and viewers.

We're so grateful for everything you've done for the nation and not just you, but also, as you said at the beginning, all the courageous Capitol Police officers, Metropolitan Police officers, your brothers and sisters in arms who defended the Capitol that day and do so bravely every single day. And on January 6th, we at Midas Touch say thank you so much for your service and thank you for all that you've done in your continuing fight for democracy. Thanks, man. I appreciate you having me on and nice chat with you guys. Appreciate you. Thank you so much, Officer Harry Dunn. Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast. Great interview with Officer Harry Dunn. You know, I think one of the things that just stands out about the interview is how ordinary people, um, became heroes that day. Like when you speak to officer Harry Dunn, I mean, officer Dunn's like a guy I would just hang out with, you know? Um, and you know, for him to tell that story of, hey, I just wanted to get home to my family, you know, and all of a sudden these insurrectionists started coming in. And then I was just like, I got to do my job.

I got to I got to help. I got to help. And it's also his perspective, you know, after being attacked the way he's been attacked by the right wing. I mean, I know people know, like he's been viciously sland been attacked by the right wing. I mean, I don't know if people know, like he's been viciously slandered by all the right wing media, you know, when his perspective of, you know, it's America, they could say what they want, but they need to be held accountable. You know, I thought it was an incredible perspective. And I think, you know, for somebody like that, who was involved in it, who was there that day, who was defending the Capitol,

to have the level of sort of calm that he has to be so level-headed about the investigations. I love the brisket analogy that he used about needing the brisket to marinate and stuff. I mean, it sounds so counter to the fear and doom and gloom that you see on social media. And I thought that was incredibly refreshing to see from a guy who is that close to it. And if Officer Harry Dunn can understand how this investigation is working, how it's shaping up, understand the importance of accountability, but that accountability takes time in investigations of these scopes, I think all of us should be able to have that sort of calm and level-headedness. And I think this was emphasized again by Merrick Garland. When Merrick Garland. Before going into Merrick Garland, I want to tell everybody about our next partner,

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All right. So Merrick Garland came out. He gave a speech, a DOJ speech, much anticipated yesterday. And I think he wanted to just set the stage for what's actually going on. And what I've realized about any time, really, I was going to say any time, you know, we hear from the DOJ or Biden or whoever, no matter what it is, everything is now kind of a political Rorschach test is what I've noticed. So Merrick Garland comes out and people hear what they want to hear. He could say one sentence and 10 people hear it in 10 different ways. For those who don't know, what's a Warshak test?

I know, but just for those who don't know. What'd you call it? What's a Warshak test? What? Warshak? We didn't know what a Warshak is. How would you spell it? I know what it is. Warshak test. W-A-R-S-H-A-K.

How would you spell it. Most people know what a Rorschach test is. Rorschach test it is. R-O-R-S-C-H-A-C-H test, not a Rorschach journey. Yeah, it's the inkblots you see where, you know, in psychological evaluations and whatnot, they'll hold up an inkblot to somebody and say, what do you see? And what they see is often based on, you know, theoretically kind of what their psychological makeup is, what's kind of on their mind, et cetera. So what I'm saying here is that when Garland speaks, people interpret it based on their opinions of Garland. So the people who think Garland's doing a great job go, Garland came out.

He's crushing him. He's going after Trump. This is it. The people who dislike Garland goes, see, he's weak. Look, he's not going after anybody. You could hear the same. He could say the same thing and everybody hears it in a different way. It's something I noticed. But I thought he spoke in incredibly plain language what do people

expect him to say he's gonna go listen you motherfuckers i'm wheeling out trump and i'm walking him and this is the end of the line trumpy listen you motherfuckers garland here donald trump you piece of fucking shit I am going to fuck you up I mean what do people expect the guy to say I think there are a lot of people he used to be the judge of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals

this guy's going to be on the Supreme Court this guy's going to talk like an adult and let's just go through Garland's history we've had Glenn Kirschner on the show before he's talked about Garland and he knows Garland very closely and I know he's also had us concerned about Garland hey I've had my go through Garland's history. We've had Glenn Kerstner on the show before. He's talked about Garland, and he knows Garland very closely. And I know he's also had us concerned about Garland. Hey, I've had my concerns about Garland. I both have these contradictory feelings where, and I brought this up to Officer Dunn, where

I both want the investigation to be going quicker, but I understand that that's not how these things often work. And Garland is a guy who is known for prosecuting domestic terrorism. Garland is the guy who went after the Oklahoma City bomber, got a conviction, did not have a single leak in that case. He is known for running a tight ship. He is known for being a man of integrity and a guy who follows the law no matter where it leads. And that's what he was trying to emphasize yesterday. So I think if you really listen to his speech clearly, what he was saying was, I think he was trying to actually talk to a lot of his detractors here in a way and say, hey, listen, the way these things work, we start with the lower level cases. That's why you're seeing a lot of these light sentences.

That's why you're seeing them start to gradually increase, because we have to begin there in our investigation. And then he says that we will let this investigation run as long as it takes. He talked about how it was more difficult to get things done as quickly because of COVID and then not having access to as many grand juries and just courthouses being closed down and things like that. But he promised to speak through the work of DOJ. And he said that, you know, he promised that he was laying a foundation and would do whatever it

takes for justice to be done consistent with the facts and the law. He also said one of the most important statements that I think was from the whole speech. He said, the actions we have taken thus far will not be our last. The Justice Department remains committed to holding all January 6th perpetrators at any level accountable under the law, whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy. So I think he's just laying it out the same way that anybody who knows the law would tell you. He's saying, we're starting with the small fish. We're getting to the big fish. We're going to follow the law wherever it leads. And we're going to go at the timeline that justice

requires for us to bring the case, not the timeline that Twitter or Facebook or whatever demands from the DOJ. We don't care about that. And I've heard a lot of complaints about that and say, oh, well, we don't have time. The clock is running out. Bullshit. The clock is not running out. The DOJ's investigation could go as long as the DOJ's investigation go. People say, oh, but what did you saw a bar did with the Mueller report? I don't even know how that is even related at all. Merrick Garland is the AG. Joe Biden is the president. I think we're going to win in 2022. But no matter if Democrats win in 2022 or don't win in 2022, guess what? Merrick Garland, still the AG. His investigation still goes on. You know the January 6th committee has

already stated their intention to wrap up their investigation prior to next January. So they know they are well aware that if Republicans get into power, that they would stop the investigation. I have no doubt that they would. They probably even make their own counter investigation to investigate Antifa. They do stupid shit. That's what they do. But we have a DOJ who's going to follow the case steadily. And I think that's what we need to look out for. I mean, that's what's going to happen undeterred, regardless of who controls the House or the Senate. That does not have a single impact on it.

And I do think everybody involved at every single level of this should be scared. And they should know that Garland is a no bullshit guy. He is very apolitical when it comes to these investigations. And he's going to follow and turn over every single stone that he finds along the way in this investigation. Midas Touch is gearing up for 2022. 2022 is here now. This is an election year.

We are fighting like Midas Mighty Fight, which means Brett ain't getting a lot of sleep. I'm already getting shit from Brett. Brett's probably working 20 hour days now. He came back from a vacation with some feistiness behind the scenes about how, but it's because we're all working really, really hard and we appreciate all of your support, but it's 2022 now. So wake up everybody listening to this. We need you to get in the fight, start registering voters, start reaching out right now to 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 family members, friends, people you know. Have them register people to vote. Even if it's one

person you know, that's making a difference. By the way, that was one of the most impactful things that I think happened in the 2020 election. It was people having conversations with their family members on a direct one-to-one basis with friends is what really makes the difference because your voice becomes exponential as you spread the word, as you share what is going on. I mean, don't be afraid to have conversations. Of course, respectfully, don't be crazy about it, but have conversations about what happened on January 6th with people who may not be aware. Have conversations about the vaccine if you think someone in your family is vaccine hesitant. Try to level with them. Don't try to talk down to them, but try to level with them. Because Joe Biden could say a million things, any politician could say a million things,

but what really people listen to who are around you are you, the people who they care about the most. While we're talking about Garland 2 and the investigation, I just want to bring up, I don't know if you guys have been following Mueller, she wrote on Twitter, but Mueller, she wrote has been doing an incredible breakdown of all the Garland stuff and they've been keeping it going in their podcast, Daily Beans. And so I just got to say, if you like news with swearing, and if you're listening to this podcast, I'm sure you do. If you listen to our podcast, you got to check out the Daily Beans podcast. It's the most important news of the day, the most compelling interviews, and all the appropriate profanity. Tune in weekday mornings to the Daily Beans. It's left-leaning news from a woman's perspective, and they make the news

bearable by making it swearable. Join the Daily Beans team of Alison Gill, Dana Goldberg, Amy Carrero every weekday and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and put some beans on it. That's the Daily Beans Podcast. Check it out. And what I love is they've been really breaking down all the various statutes that they know Merrick Garland is pursuing. They've been reading the tea leaves. They've been talking about this Merrick Garland DOJ case about the insurrection in the most clear terms that I've heard out there. And so I recommend you listen to it. And I think all of us need to try to make a little bit of a New Year's resolution to try to put some faith back in our institutions if we can. I know it's been hard because they've been just so destroyed by Trump

over these past few years. But a strong democracy needs strong institutions. And I personally don't think it's super helpful to be constantly attacking the Department of Justice when it's run by an honorable person who is doing his job and is trying to get to the bottom of this. I don't think it's helpful to be attacking the January 6th committee who are doing their jobs at an incredible rate and I think are just kicking ass and are leaving no stone unturned. I think we have to rise up and we have to support these institutions. And that doesn't mean we don't criticize. That doesn't mean we don't put pressure on, but I don't think we need to be Trumpian about it and just go,

you know, burn all this to the ground. F you, you know, have vitriol towards it. You look like a crazy person when you do that. You look like you're an insane person when you do that. Because I'll tell you, do you know who attacks the DOJ and who attacks government institutions? Criminals. People who do the wrong thing. People who want to break the institutions so that they could go out and engage in whatever the criminality that they want to engage in that would otherwise be reined in by these governmental institutions. So definitely everybody let's get in the game. It's 2022. Make sure you subscribe to the Midas Touch podcast. It will be helpful if you tell others

to subscribe to the Midas Touch podcast and please leave a five-star review wherever you're able to review. By the way, you could do this in Spotify now. You used to not be able to leave five-star reviews in Spotify. You can now leave a five-star review in Spotify. So leave us a five-star review. Five-star review, say something in the review about the podcast. That helps with the rankings of the show. And Midas has been back in the top 50 of all podcasts nationwide last week. Let's keep it there. Let's keep it there. Let's keep the momentum. And make sure you subscribe to the other Midas Touch podcast.

Midas Touch, Legal AF, Zoomed In, Kremlin File, Mea Culpa, and of course, your favorite politics girl. Make sure you subscribe to all of those podcasts. So everybody, January 6th, solemn, important roundup show that we just had. Let's get in the game in 2022. We're back in the game. Thank you, everybody, for all of your support. And we'll see you next time on the Midas Touch Podcast. Shout out to the Midas Midas!