The MeidasTouch Podcast - Secrets with Noel Casler & Carol Loennig

Episode Date: May 28, 2021

On today’s episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, the brothers sit down with TWO very special guests. First up, the brothers talk with comedian, former The Apprentice staffer, and host of the Noel Casler Podcast, Noel Casler. As a staffer on the The Apprentice, Noel has all the inside knowledge of Trump, and gives his thoughts on Amazon's potential acquisition of The Apprentice tapes. Next up, the brothers have an incredibly insightful conversation with Carol Leonnig. Carol is a Washington Post investigative reporter who won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for her reporting, which revealed the NSA's expanded spying on Americans. She is the author of the book Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service – a NYTimes Bestseller. Throughout the episode, the brothers also catch you up the January 6th Commission, the infrastructure bill, Texas concealing their true death count from the disastrous winter storm and much more. Tune in every Tuesday and Friday for new episodes of The MeidasTouch Podcast! LFG!! Through Memorial Day weekend, get a FREE 'Vaxxed' wristband with a purchase of $50 or more at store.meidastouch.com. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/meidastouch/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/meidastouch/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Welcome to the Midas Touch Podcast. Ben Micellis joined by my younger brothers, Brett and Jordy Micellis. We have an incredible podcast for you today. Our first guest will be Noel Kastler. He is the host of the Noel Kastler podcast. And of course, you know, Noel, who was a staffer on The Apprentice. Noel has been a longtime friend of the Midas Touch podcast, even before the podcast existed, when Midas Touch was in its

early days. Noel had shared our videos. We were on the Stuttering John podcast together. Noel would distribute videos through Midas Touch and occasionally does today. Noel is hilarious, and I always look forward to Noel on the show. After the Noel Kastler interview, we have another incredible guest. We have Carol Lennig. And Carol is a Washington Post investigative reporter. She is the author of the current New York Times bestseller, number two on the New York Times bestseller list, zero fail. Can't wait to talk to Kara Lenning. And always great to speak to true, real investigative journalists to learn about their process and a true award winner. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 2014. Exactly. I mean,

she's got an incredible history and just so excited to speak with her on the podcast today. And Iittner, who he's a freelance. It turned out that the award that he had won, he calls himself award winning. He won, I think, employee of the month. I'm not joking. This isn't a joke. That was the award, not like a Pulitzer or anything. No, he won employee of the month. I think one year when he was working, I think at the short period of time where he had a full-time job, someone who doesn't even have a job, you know, really ever. And he bounces from place to place, but he won employee of the month one. Then he goes around saying that he's an award winning, you award winning journalist, which is like so embarrassing. I don't even know what happened to the guy. Occasionally from time to time, somebody will like DM me like a tweet.

Like he hasn't even gotten over us, I think, because I see him tweeting people's accounts that are like random, like Red Rose, like anonymous troll accounts that literally sound like crazy people are writing it. He's like retweeting Russia. It's like, I don't get how. He's basically retweeting Russian accounts. I don't get how you could, like, how do you, he still, I think, I don't know if he still calls himself an investigative

journalist but you know what I actually I feel bad for it I actually kind of do feel bad for I mean we broke his brain I mean he I feel bad for him it was really weird the man spent six months of his life of his entire life you know talking about you know you know, you know, talking about us and he can't get over us. It's, it's very strange, but I can't give him any more ounce of wherever you are. I wish, I wish you well, you know, stay like, like maybe a new career path. I'm thinking of the Mariah Carey song. Why are you so obsessed with me? We should have him team up with a little Stevie Lawson. I won't get into the whole voice, but we should team them up together. One of the stories that I think is just so powerful

in the news today is the Capitol Police officer who was murdered during the insurrection, Brian Sicknick's mother, Gladys Sicknick. She's been at the Capitol today and she's mom. There's truly nothing, nothing out there like the power of a parent, family member, in this case, a mother, standing up for their family. It's so inspiring. Let's listen to the clip of when reporters were asking her why she felt the need to go to the Capitol to try to get senators to vote for a bill to investigate January 6th. Does it anger you, Mrs. Sicknick, to hear senators who do not support this commission? And what emotions do you feel when you're confronted with that? This is why I'm here today.

Usually I'm staying in the background and I just couldn't stay quiet. Said usually I'm staying in the background and I just couldn't I couldn't stay quiet anymore. She said, usually I'm staying in the background and I just couldn't, I couldn't stay quiet anymore. And she was referring to watching the senators refuse to vote for the January 6th commission to analyze the events of January 6th, the moments preceding it, the months preceding it, to see who was responsible, get the full details on how her son, Capitol officer Brian Sicknick died. And this made me very emotional watching this because first off, the courage of this woman who is still grieving to go to the Capitol, to take action, to take her grief and bring it into action.

But also, this is something that only a mother could do. I really felt her motherly love. And you don't want to mess with mothers is the thing that I've learned in my life. And I couldn't help but thinking of our mom and how awesome our mom is throughout our life. And I was thinking of just the various things that our mothers have done for us and how I know for a fact that she would go to the end of the world for us the same way that Officer Sicknick's mom, Gladys, is going for them. And so I was just thinking we could share some, maybe, you know, some stories from our life about, Gladys, is going for them. And so I was just thinking we could share some maybe,

you know, some stories from our life about, you know, mothers doing extraordinary things and just appreciate the Midas moms out there for a second. Yeah, so rewinding a little bit back to about third or fourth grade. This is Ben, by the way, in case you confuse our voices. I remember my art choices back then were more abstract. And so when we would be told, hey, draw a photo of a dinosaur or a cat, I would draw very like unique lines and I would kind of

connect the lines with various shading and it would look to some like squiggly lines. But to me, it was ultimately a work of art. However, to my third and fourth grade art teacher, I've drawn a blank on her name, but it was not a work of art. And so throughout the entire year, none of my artwork was ever hung in the school. And my mom would show up for parent-teacher conferences and she wouldn't see any of my art when she would go from time to time. And finally, she asked the teacher why she didn't post it. And she was just saying that I wasn't following the rules. And my mom made this art teacher cry hysterically. How dare she talk about how my art was bad. And sure enough, they hung up my little squiggly line.

There you go. But in high school, right around ninth or 10th grade, I was approached. And I'm not sure if I ever told you this story. No, I don't know where to go with this. I was approached by the head of the art department who wanted to feature one of my squiggly line designs in the art book. And she asked me if I was an artist. And she may have been asking if I needed help. Who did this? I see some trouble here. I see some trouble here. It may have been

trying to determine if a referral to the guidance counselor was necessary, but it was sure enough, it was featured in the art book. I love that. So you are a featured artist, which I think is the equivalent of like an employee of the month. So congratulations. That's a pretty large task. Award winning artist. Award winning artist. The story that always comes to mind for me is when, so I would harass mom all the time for like the newest products that would come out. I probably still do to this day, to be honest. But Tamagotchis, I don't know if you all remember, Tamagotchis were the biggest thing on the planet. Nobody could get Tamagotchis.

They were all sold out of every single store. And when I was in probably around third or fourth grade, I was begging how we need to get a Tamagotchi. We need to get the Tamagotchis. And finally, mom got us the Tamagotchi. I loved it. I was playing with it. You challenge your friends.

You basically like a virtual pet that you have to care for all day. In hindsight, it sounds like an awful lot of work to give yourself a virtual pet that you have to watch 24 hours a day. But literally one of the first days after I get it, I'm eating lunch in the school cafeteria and I put it on my tray. And as I throw out my food, I throw out the Tamagotchi. And I didn't realize it until a few hours later. And I didn't know where it is. And mom said, hey, maybe when you threw out your lunch, maybe you threw it out with it. And so mom drove us to the elementary school. She hopped in the freaking dumpster in the back of the school, went in it and dug through all

of the shit and literally found the Tamagotchi, revived it back to life. It was like a freaking miracle. And I never messed with moms or never put it past moms at the end of the day. Absolutely not. Now I feel I need to share mine now. I was obsessed. And frankly, I still am. I'm obsessed with the show. It's called Dragon Ball Z. As a kid, I was way even more obsessed with this show. And the problem was it was a relatively new show that had just come over from the States. And so you couldn't really get a lot of episodes when I was, you know, coming up because they're all sort of subtitled or dubbed over with English because it was a Japanese show. Mom used to take me to like this like comic book store in Queens, like in the middle of nowhere in Queens that would only sell

Dragon Ball Z stuff. I don't know how she found it, but pre-internet really figured it out, found a way, always have my Dragon Ball Z on lock because of mom. Mom, you're the best. I know you're listening to right now. We love you. And we know she did the code. She did the password last time. She did the password and we set it out. Three, three, three, three. I literally, before I even woke up, I woke up, looked at my phone and I had a text that said three, three, three, three. So mom, we love you. Thank you. And just watching Officer Sicknick's mother really touched me. It was a really emotional moment. It shared humanity.

At the end of the day, Brett, what this is really about is a shared humanity. As a Democrat, what I appreciate most is that there's empathy for humanity. There's empathy for people's health. There's empathy for people's education. There's empathy for people's education. There's empathy for people's rights as workers. And all of those factors together are we should all care about. And that's why these stories, to me, give me hope for our country and about the Democratic Party. For example, we have Mitch McConnell and other GQP members who are calling in favors amongst each other to totally quash and kill the January 6th commission from taking place.

You have most Americans are saying, hey, you need to investigate this other than if you're in the Fox News, OAN, you know, GQP echo chamber. And again, you have this GQP statement, GQP members trying to question. Speaking of statements, you have, you know, Senator Manchin puts out a statement. It's branded orange, has a photo of West Virginia in the little O. And it says, quote, there is no excuse for any Republican to vote against this commission since Democrats have agreed to everything they asked for. Mitch McConnell has made this his political position, thinking it will help his 2022 elections. They do not believe the truth will set you free. So they continue to live in fear. That should do it. That should do it. I don't put out orange font. Check a little West Virginia in the center of my, Oh, aerial font bolt size 19.

I'm going to go and play some racquetball today. I've stood up firmly to the GQP fascists. I mean, if you genuinely believe, Joe Manchin, what you just wrote, they do not believe the truth will set you free. They do not believe the truth will set you free. Say it one more time. They do not believe in truth. So how are you, Joe Manchin, believing that you can have good faith negotiations with these individuals when on an issue that is not even about anything that is policy related? When it just goes to the issue of whether you should conduct an investigation and all of the asks. And this is why the Democrats are smart. They just said, OK, what do you want, GQP? OK, boom, boom, boom, we'll do it all. You know, things that the Democrats should never have even agreed to, things that the GQP would never agree to if they're in part. OK, we'll do it all.

And the GQP goes, oh, we can't do that. We can't do that. So you can't negotiate with these people because Joe Manchin, if you can't get a deal on investigating insurrection, you are not going to get a deal on wages, on infrastructure, on health care, on anything. likes to think of himself as this principled guy. And I think he thinks of himself as a strong guy. Like he is the one guy who is deciding the fate of the country. But to me, when I look at him, I'm like, this is a weak guy who is being rolled by Republicans. He is being absolutely played. He is way out of his league. And for reasons that are just totally baffling. I mean, he has a real chance. We've talked about this before to do real good in this country, to accomplish really good things. And he is saying that he will refuse to blow up the filibuster because he doesn't want to destroy the country. Let me tell you, Joe Manchin, what's going to destroy the country. What's going to destroy the country are the voter suppression laws going on around this country. What's going to destroy the country

are domestic terrorist attacks conducted by the Republican Party against the United States of America. That's what's going to destroy the country. And unless you get rid of the filibuster, we're going to be in some bad, bad, bad shape. And of course, you know, Mitch asked, begged, begged everybody, I need you to do me a favor. I need you to do me a favor. Please vote again. First off, why is it a personal favor to Mitch McConnell to not investigate January 6th? Why is that a personal favor to him? What is he afraid of being uncovered that it's a personal favor to him to vote against this commission? pushing forth his infrastructure plan, which is a big, bold infrastructure plan. And Senate Republicans, McConnell's already vowed to block 100% of the Democratic agenda. So Senate Republicans unveiled their offer, which they're marketing as a $928 billion plan compared to the White House's $1.3 trillion plan. But in actuality, and this is what bothers me about the way the media is

covering it, in actuality, the Republican bill is actually only adding an additional $257 billion to the infrastructure that is currently planned. So're including that as part of their number. In their number. And so it is in no way going to address the systemic issues that have crippled our country. And in states with GQP governors, you see what a crippled infrastructure did in Texas. You know, when Governor Abbott wanted to blame the Green New Deal for the fact that his wind turbines didn't have antifreeze. Like in all the countries, you know, the wind turbines don't freeze because the country, you know, the countries are prepared with his faulty leadership and with old infrastructure. They're not prepared. Not only that, but the turbines were such a small portion overall of Texas's issues in Texas and Texas's electrical grid had no regulation. It was all

old. It was all busted. And so by the time a storm hit, that was predictable. I mean, you know, it's not every time you have serious winter storms at that time period, but you know, it's going to come. It's not like the first time ever in the history. There's a bad storm, but the infrastructure is busted and that's what happens. And so, yes, infrastructure is broadband. Infrastructure is technology. Why they hate the idea of making America competitive and better than the rest of the world. It's just so

weird. They'd rather everything fail rather than fix it before it gets to that point. They'd rather something break and then have to spend exorbitant amounts of money after the fact to fix the problem than they would just buying antifreeze for cheaply and preventing the problem from happening in the first place. Chris Hayes from MSNBC, he noted that the GOP's counteroffer is 13% of what Biden's plan offers. Imagine if you went for a job offer. The GOP wants to act like they're meeting Biden in the middle. Imagine if you went to a job offer and you said, I deserve to be paid 70 grand. And the employer goes, eh, what about 10? It would be like the biggest slap in the face on the planet. And that's exactly what's happening here. And that's why I

don't understand why Democrats are trying to even play nice and negotiate with the other side, other than to just try to show good faith to the country that they're trying to be bipartisan before they find another way to get their legislation passed. Because there's no negotiating with these people. Like you said, Ben, if you can't get a 9-11 style commission for January 6th passed, you're not going to get anything passed through regular order in this Congress. Jordy, do you remember Infrastructure Week? Of course, I remember Infrastructure Week. But wait, before you start poking fun at me, Brett, that was something really sharp that you said. They don't act until it's fucking broken. And that goes back as far as,

you know, forever. I mean, the earliest one that I can think of in my lifetime is Katrina. Everyone kept saying, Hey, the levies aren't in shape. Something needs to be done. Something needs to be done. Sure enough, ship broke and it led to a horrible disaster. Fast forward. I mean, like we don't learn from our mistakes at all. It's absolutely pathetic. And while we're on Texas specifically, did you guys see that they're hiding the death count now? Like the true death count is being completely underreported from what happened in that winter storm. Yeah, there was a BuzzFeed report. The state's current tally, it stands at 151 deaths from the winter storm. We're now learning that 700 people or more were

killed during the storm. And so Texas is hiding the numbers on this important storm. We're now learning that 700 people or more were killed during the storm. And so Texas is hiding the numbers on this important data. We're learning the storm was worse than they said. And once again, that's all comes down to infrastructure. It's why this bill is so important. This bill isn't just broadband and pipes. This means people's lives at the end of the day. You know, what's fascinating in a really dark way is, you know, when we put these shows together, even way back when we first started, we do these really great, robust outlines. And when the Texas situation was going down, I kept trying to find, I remember specifically, I kept trying to find like death counts and death. I could not find an accurate

news article that would blatantly state X people had died. It was all a speculation. It's bizarre. I don't know, Jordy, where you thought I was going to make fun of you on that. I'm just very defensive. Very sensitive. I was just asking if you heard of infrastructure week, because where I was going with it is that if Trump proposed this same exact bill that Biden proposed, I would give you this guarantee. It would be bipartisan support. You would not hear Midas touch saying, oh, no, don't do that infrastructure. We want 80 percent less of the infrastructure. The only reason why Donald Trump did not propose this bill, this this is pretty much the same

stuff that Trump said that he wanted to do with infrastructure kind of point by point. The only reason was that Trump was so incompetent that he couldn't write more than one page of text because he couldn't have people to actually compile the bill because it was too complicated for them to actually do work. I'm not exaggerating here, people. That's specifically what happened. This bill is no different at the end of the day than the grandiose visions that Donald Trump claimed that he was going to be bringing. This is this is common sense bipartisan basis. They were eager to do it because they knew it would actually help people, but they couldn't get it done because of Trump and the Republicans. And the irony of all this is when these plans do pass, who are the first people to take credit for it? The same Republicans

who voted against it, the GQP. And today, Biden actually clapped back on that. Let's go. I think first, let's take a listen to this clip. So Biden held up a piece of paper at his conference today. Let's take a listen. Even my Republican friends in Congress, not a single one of them voted for the rescue plan. I'm not going to embarrass anyone,

but I have here a list of how back in their districts they're bragging about the rescue plan. They touted the restaurant revitalization fund. They touted the fact that we're in a situation where they're dealing with touted grants to community health care centers. Touted. I mean, some people have no shame. Some people have no shame. And that's what I was saying yesterday. These people are shameless with taking credit for it. A New York Times photographer got a close up of the document that Biden was holding. What did Biden say? Biden said, I won't embarrass them, but he said, he said, I won't embarrass them, but we're going to embarrass them. We'll call them out by names. And I won't say everything that everybody did,

but Senator Roger Wicker from Mississippi touted the restaurant revitalization fund. Representative McCarthy touted the same fund. Representative Elise Stefanik touted the same fund. Representative Beth Van Doon touted the same fund. Representative Elise Stefanik touted the same fund. Representative Beth Van Doon touted the same fund. Representative Greg Pence, Mike Pence's brother, touted the same fund. Representative Jamie Herrera-Boitler, Representative Balderson, Gonzalez, Madison Cawthorn, Alex Mooney, Lee Zeldin, Andrew Garbino. And then there's a name that's being covered on the bottom. But one name that he should also add to this is Governor Ron DeSantis, who yesterday was taking credit for he had this whole press conference and said, guess what, teachers? Guess what, schools? I'm giving you all a thousand dollars in money.

Enjoy the free money. And it was money from the American Rescue Plan that Joe Biden signed into law. How shameless could these people be? Imagine buying pizza like for somebody and their neighbors like, no, no, no, we don't want pizza. We don't want pizza. We don't want pizza. Their roommates like, we don't want pizza. We don't want pizza. And the pizza arrives and the person loves it. And the neighbor goes, all me, baby, all me. I think it's a little worse than the pizza example, but I, I, I'll take your pizza. I have a better example. I have a better example because that, that was a really bad one. It's the kid who would be in your, in your school project who wouldn't do any of the work. And then they would show up when you get the good grade at the end of it for the presentation and be like,

Hey guys, I'm here. It wasn't that awesome. And it was like, no, you asshole. You didn't do jack shit. I think Ben needs a take now. My take is it's like when there's a Midas touch video that goes out and Jordy and me go, what a great video that we edited, everybody. Aren't we the best video editors in the world? Yeah. You know, I used Adobe and I had to clip this and clip that. But it's more than that. If you would be like, it would be like, if you were like, don't make that video, Brett. That's a stupid video. Don't do it. I won't support it. And then it blows up and you're like, all me, baby, all me. Look at me now. A little technical. I want to show one more Biden clap back clip today on the January 6th commission before we get no Kessler up in here. But this was Biden is out eating an ice cream and he's asked about his views of GQP not supporting the January 6th commission. I can't imagine anyone voting against the establishment commission on the

greatest assault since the Civil War on the Capitol. But at any rate, I can't for ice cream. That's quintessential Joe Biden. Doesn't it seem like President Biden is having a really good time being president despite dealing with all the troubles? He's always smiling. He's really enjoying it. He's prepared from day one. He's ready to go. He knows that he's helping. And ultimately, he's an honest and truthful person who doesn't have to make up stuff every day. You know, the truth is golden. It is a very liberating thing when you're when you have the truth on

your side, Jordy. Can reporters just stop asking like like really intense questions, though, when Biden's holding like ice cream or something? Because there's no really great way to answer. What do you think about the Republicans who refuse to go forward with a generous ex-commission? Well, the man has an ice cream cone in his hand. There's no way you could really take like it. No, I agree with you, Jordy. And I'm sure somebody who will also agree with you about Biden's charm, Biden's charisma as compared to what he knew Trump,

even pre-president we have noel casler joining us on the podcast right after this what's up midas mighty ben my cell is here with my brothers brett and jordy my cell is you know what would be great with some barbecuing on memorial day midas touch merch We got a great deal right now going for the Memorial Day weekend and the Memorial Day weekend only. So if you're listening to this after, sorry, you missed your chance. You better act now. What we're doing is if you spend $50 or more in the Midas Touch store, you will automatically get added to your cart a free vaxxed wristband. The vaxxed wristbands are the perfect way to let everybody know that you've been vaccinated.

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Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast. We are joined by none other than Noel Kastler. Noel's a comedian and host of the Noel Kastler podcast. And as many of you know, Noel was a staffer on The Apprentice back in the day, gained a lot of inside knowledge, a major ally and friend of Midas Touch from day one. Noel, welcome to the podcast. Thanks, Ben. Good to see you guys. I'm so happy to be here, man. It's an honor and I couldn't be prouder of what you guys have done. It was about a year ago we were all together on the Stuttering

John podcast. And, you know, that was right after the first video came out and you guys have just started a complete movement and you're doing the right thing. And I had a feeling that day that you were you were going to go far, but it's it's exceeded even my hopes for you. So and there's a lot more work to do, you know, and that's what I like about you guys. You're staying on it because, you know, what we saw leading up to, you know, January 6th was like a skirmish. We're in the battle now, you know, now is where it really counts and the rubber meets the road. So thanks for keeping, you know, keeping the fight on. No, we appreciate it. And no, from pretty much maybe not day one, but maybe day 11, because we had to make our first video as soon as we published it. And it was getting, you know, a thousand views, a few thousand views. You know, they eventually skyrocketed. All

our videos did millions. But you had reached out to Brett and Brett reached out to you. And really early on, we began this this this friendship and partnership for democracy. And so it's just so good to see that the goals, the discrete goals of defeating Trump was accomplished and taking back the Senate was accomplished. But could you ever imagine, though, back then after defeating him, that still you have this GQP party that still still kisses the ring? I could not. You know, I could not. It's exceeded my greatest fears, you know, and in my case, I figured I'd be done talking about Trump, you know, after he lost the election. I was like, I'm never going to talk about that stuff on stage again,

you know, and now it's more important than ever to talk about it, because like you just said, Ben, you know, the Marjorie Taylor Greene's and stuff are more dangerous to Trump. It's like Trump is like, you know, a monster that split open and a thousand little monsters ran outside of him, you know, and they scattered into all these dark corners in the country. And you guys know this better than anybody, you know, because you're staying involved in local fights. That's what's really terrifying. The stuff that people aren't paying attention to. The recounts in Arizona. Ben, I know you were just out there and, you know, that stuff is going to change democracy because what happened, you know, the wonderful things that happen in the, you know, the election in Georgia, you know, the runoff

election that you guys were integral in getting the vote out. And they're basically saying we're going to make sure that never happens again. And people are going to be in for a rude awakening come next November, you know, 2022, if they take back the house. It's all over. You know, we're in an existential fight for democracy now more than ever. And we have to rise to that occasion. And it's done in ways like what you guys are doing. It's in getting the message out there that we can make a difference because they're not going to stop. You know, and whoever tells the biggest, loudest lie generally is able to sway a lot of people in this country. That's what Trump taught us. Seventy million people still voted for him last November or seventy four million. That's mind boggling. You know, like, oh, I want to I want some more of that.

The drug addict who allowed six hundred thousand people to perish, you know, and never came to work and played golf and let his kids grift. Give me some more of that. And and that's writ large now. And it's become a brand and it's become a lifestyle choice for Americans. And we need to reeducate them in a way that that illuminates what's really going on. And what do you think that lifestyle choice is for Americans. Do you think that there's just so much stimuli around and people are so mentally ill, depressed, distressed, they don't know where to look, that just supporting a fuckhead just gives them an out to be horrible people and basically kind of throw in the towel, but feel better than other people? Like what what is the psychology here that you think is play? That's my take right there to

some extent. But what do you think? I think the same thing. I think it's the same thing. You know, I think it started as sort of a toxic lifestyle brand, you know, this toxic masculinity, masculinity of these big jacked up pickup trucks and the punisher stickers, you know, and waving a flag and this simple jingoism, you know, and ethnocentrism kind of that that we saw with the anti-immigrant stuff that Trump started with. But now, like you said, we're a country that's gone through trauma. You know, we need like Oprah to take everybody together and like have us in a class to heal, you know, because everybody has resentments. If you're in recovery, I'm in recovery myself. I've been like 16 years. Right.

You work on resentments, you work on those things that you carry inside you that are poison that might motivate your actions and you won't act in your best interest if you have a lot of that crap inside of you. Right. So now we have a country that's been fed grievance for four years. Fox News is feeding them this poison every night and you see these examples every day. You know, there's a Karen video that's going around this morning of a lady in an airport freaking out, right? But it's almost sad because she's clearly mentally ill.

She's clearly- The manager of the airport. Exactly. But in a sense, that's somebody who's sick and suffering, you know, or yesterday there was a video of a hotel manager in Michigan who was denying a mom, you know, a mom's bathroom was flooding in the middle of the night. And the guy was basically like, I'm not going to do anything about it. Get out of here, you dumb Democrat. It's like you just said, Ben, people have an excuse to close off their hearts to fellow Americans. And that's the worst thing a leader can do. And that's what Trump

did. And also, you know, the machine of Fox News, because there's a lot of money in that. You can sell them a lot of crap once you once you get their their their attention and you say, this is the choice you make. This is the my pillow you want to buy. This is the truck. This is the gun you need. But when you do that to a people, when you divide a people and turn them against each other, it's horrible. And in a mentally ill nation like we are to a large extent now, right, we have mass shootings every day. We just had one in California yesterday in San Jose, as you guys well know, we need help and we need to understand it's always going to be the right hand fighting the left, but we're part of the same organism. You know, we are all neighbors, you know, and countrymen, whether we like it or not. And we're going to be a much stronger,

healthier nation if we learn to work together again. No doubt. And switching gears now to the Amazon acquisition of MGM. So this was interesting to me because for a lot of reasons, but one reason for me is I was just finishing the book by someone named William Rempel of the biography of Kirk Kikorian. And it was called The Gambler. It's an incredible book. I recommend it to all listeners out there. And Kirk Kikorian was one of the original people who acquired the MGM brand, flipped it a few times to Ted Turner. So everybody go out there and I would buy that book. I mean, it's an incredible book of business and leadership. But switching gears here now to the Amazon acquisition, one of the things that's

interesting among the 4,000 titles that MGM owns and MGM Studio owns was what you worked for, The Apprentice. And so there's speculation now, what happens now that Bezos of Amazon, who is an enemy of Trump, has acquired this library? Is he going to acquire it? Is the library going to mysteriously burn down? What do you think is going to happen? Yeah, I don't. I don't think we're going to hear those dates. I just don't see it. I know everybody was excited about it yesterday. And I hate to throw cold water on the parade, you know, but he bought MGM. He bought a company that owns all these other properties. You know, Mark Burnett produced The Voice. He produced Survivor. He produces Shark Tank. He's got a lot of very valuable properties. And he was in in those conversations. He was in those helicopters when Trump was going off on racist brands, you know. So for Bezos to release that stuff, he's going to weaken the brand that he just bought. And I don't see him doing that if the tapes even exist anymore, you know. And I was in the room when some of that stuff happened.

And my take on that is like, you don't need proof that he's a racist at this point. Yeah, I'd love to hear it. It's delicious to hear. But you heard the Access Hollywood tapes. You know, you saw his own niece say he uses the N-word. The dude used the N-word more than Cat Williams. You know, it was like he had Tourette's. And I tell people, like, why not listen to the people that suffered from it?

You know, Kwame Jackson heard him use the N-word in like 2004 when he was on The Regular Apprentice. I heard him describe Holly Robinson Peete by the N-word. He said, they want me to choose the N-word. Right. And she's gone on record to say that happened. And you want me to go into that story a little bit? Like, it's a perfect example of who Trump was, you know, that that particular season he had to choose between Brett, the guy who sang in Poison, Brett Michaels, right? And Holly Robinson Peete. And earlier in the year, ironically, I worked on the Tony Awards every year, too, for 20 years, and I was assigned to Poison.

And Brett Michaels didn't come to rehearsal that day and learn his blocking, right? So when we did the performance, he walked downstage when the audience started cheering and he was all waving at him, right? Instead of moving back upstage because a big scrim came down and hit him on the head and he got like a brain aneurysm and went to the hospital. This is all true. It happened at the Tony's, right? Cut to the chase about a year later, he's on Celebrity Apprentice and he's got so many medical complications, he can barely come to any of the, you know, the events. He doesn't win any of the challenges, none of this stuff.

So he's not kind of like your first candidate to hire at a job, right? Holly Robinson Peete wins everything. She's incredibly brilliant. She's articulate. She's beautiful. She's somebody that people would trip over themselves to hire. And Trump didn't make these choices, you know, the producers did. So when he showed up for the finale and we shot it at the Skirball Center, which is part of NYU down in Washington Square Park, right below Washington Square Park,

they said, hey, you're going to pick Holly Robinson-Peach. She's won everything. She's clearly the standout. And that was his reaction. They want me to pick the N-word. No. And who did he pick? He picked Bret Michaels,

the white guy with a bandana on his head that we literally had to have an EMT crew standing on the side of the set in case he went to cardiac arrest during the finale because his health was so bad. And I'm not knocking him for having health problems, but that's not who you're going to charge to run your company, which was ostensibly what the show was about. You were looking for the next corporate officer. And I point that out because that's who Trump is. So it's should that show should have been called white guy, last white guy standing. You know, I'm going to pick every white dude in the room before I pick the more qualified thing. And it's indicative of a sickness that was in this country. Right. And that's what a lot of the Republicans are fighting for now. That's what this voter legislation is about.

It's about making it not a fair playing field. It's not letting people of color and minorities have an equal say in their government. So the white guys can get promoted even though they're not the most qualified, you know? Totally, that's the thing. I agree with you. We know he's racist.

We know the guy's a criminal. I don't think there's anything that could be said on any tape out there that could convince his followers to leave him. I think he could walk right up to them and say like, you guys are uneducated. Oh, he did that already. You guys are uneducated. You guys are stupid. Do you think there's anything out there that he could even say that would get that contingent, that 30% of people to be like, yeah, maybe this isn't my guy? No, they would love him. It would make him a hero. It would embolden them because let's be honest, that's what we're at now. We've divided this

nation. It's like they're the Nationalist Party. You know, it's a white supremacist platform that they're basically running on the current GOP. So it would only strengthen him. It would be awesome to watch if they do come out. Jeff Bezos, if you happen to be listening and you do walk into a room and there's a cardboard box that says Apprentice Outtakes, pick out the tape that says B-roll for helicopter ride. Because if you remember that show in the beginning, they took a helicopter around the city and it had Trump's name on it. It was Trump looking like a stud.

Well, my guy was the audio. My friend was the audio engineer in the back of that helicopter. And Trump went on a racist street. He looked out the window at Queens. It was like, look at all those. You know, I don't want to use the words, but he used words for Spanish people, Muslims and black people that were all racial slurs. And he goes, when I was a kid, that was all white. That's what his followers like about him. So I think if they heard the tapes, they'd be like, that's our guy. That's why we voted. Exactly. That's not the only drama going on with Trump this week. I mean, we learned that the New York investigation into Trump has now moved into what they're calling an advanced stage. It's now flipped over to a criminal

investigation. A grand jury has been convened. Witnesses are being contacted. What are your thoughts on the ramping up of the New York investigation into the Trump organization? I think it's awesome. You know, I've been waiting a lifetime. I have tempered optimism because I've seen the guy skate forever. And let's face it, he's 75 next week, you know, in two weeks or something like that. I don't think he's going to be doing much time in prison just because he's so old. And I think he tied up in courts. Ben's the expert on this, you know,

but I feel like he'd sneak out of Florida or Bedminster or something and get on the next flight to UAE before he'd like report to Otisville. But I think it's delicious. I think it's even more exciting to me because I was Ivanka's handler, you know, and that thing that leaked last week,

the deposition, I think Michael Cohen talked about this, where she was like, I don't know who Alan Weisselberg is. Really? Because he ran your dad's company for 50 years, you know, and your grandfather's company. He probably signed every check that paid for your tuition at Chote, you know, when you were in high school, he probably, you know, he was that company, you know, so the fact that she's trying to play dumb and kind of step back from her role, which when I worked for them and I worked for the television production, I wasn't an employee of Trump organization, to be fair, but I saw how it worked and she ran the show. So her thing of like, I don't know who he is, is BS at that stage of a

game. And this is they're talking about right before he became president. She would like she was the figurehead for Trump Soho. She was the figurehead for Trump Baja, where they grifted a bunch of people in Southern California. And they would send her out and say, you know, to meet the prospective shareholders. And she'd be like, I'm going to get a condo here, too. So you just might see me knocking on your door to, you know, borrow a cup of sugar. She used that folksy kind of like glamorous, whimsical thing to sell the Trump brand because they had realized that Trump was like pretty tarnished at that point. You know, it wasn't it wasn't like people didn't want to live next door to Donald Trump. But, you know, Ivanka was supposed to be the next generation of Trump, the sophisticated, you know, liberal because her and Jared were sort of the darlings of Manhattan.

People forget, but they were at all the liberal events and everything. And I think it's interesting that the screws are going to turn on them, too. I think Trump will turn on those kids faster than you can say, you know, hamburger. You know, he's going to be like, no, I was doing the show. Eric was watching the books, you know, send him to prison, you know, he's going to be like, no, I was doing the show. Eric was watching the books, you know, send him to prison, send Don Jr. who he hates anyway. So I think it's awesome. Even Ivanka, you think you would flip on Ivanka? Yeah, it would be. Yes, of course. And he loves Ivanka, you know, but he loves Ivanka for what

she looks like. You know, he loves Ivanka for how he sees himself in Ivanka. You know, he doesn't love Ivanka like you love your brother. He loves her, you know, for how she can serve his ego. And when his ego is going to be threatened to the extent that prison, he'll turn on her. But more importantly, she'll turn on him. She'll say I was the victim of this whole thing. Ivanka has a big card to play that she hasn't played yet. You know, I was the victim of this whole thing. Ivanka has a big card to play that she hasn't played yet. You know, she's got a whole kind of strategy and Jared will be out of there. Jared will be, you know, halfway to the Middle East as well. He's probably got a penthouse in Tel Aviv already or something like he's he's setting up his exit plan. There's a reason he

went away for three weeks right before Trump left office in January. Like he's no fool either. This whole thing is like a den of vipers and they're all going to turn on each other. Do you have any interactions with Weisselberg? Was he ever at the apprentice? No, he was, I did the celebrity apprentice because I'm only interested if there's famous people there, you know, I'm not trying to meet Joe Schmoe who's just competing for a job. I didn't do that. It's true. I mean, I handled talent and live TV so that you had to be kind of celebrities for me to get called in. So, no, I didn't do it. But he was on season two, episode seven, if I remember correctly. I just

so he was one of the judges at one point. And I'm sure he was in the audience. I was always backstage, but I'm sure he was around. But I've been always backstage, but I'm sure he was around. But I've been in the room with him maybe at the after parties, but I don't you know, I don't know. Ivanka, no idea who he was. And here's the other thing. Trump's organization is like 12 employees. You know, people think it was this big multinational corporation. It was basically a mom and pop shop, you know, like as a real estate company. They all had offices on the same floor. It wasn't a big space, you know. Wait, now going back to Trump's kids going to prison, which one would actually probably hold up the worst in prison? Ivanka, Don Jr., Eric?

Ivanka would do the best because she's the she's the darkest and she's the you know, she's the the the meanest. Like I tell people, she would manipulate her father. She hated her brother. She's trying to run the show. So she would shiv somebody like she's the type of walk in the first day. Just go up to the biggest person and punch him in the face and be like, that's my muffin. You know, like she would get aggro because her real voice isn't that soft breathy thing either. She talks like a sailor from Queens, dude.

She curses, you know, dude she curses you know um eric would would you know he would lose it you know he would be weeping they'd have to carry him out of the van and stuff like he wouldn't survive and junior god you know junior would die of withdrawal let's be honest you know what i mean he would be likeing in jail. So I'd say Eric, Don Jr. and Ivanka. Ivanka would win. She'd be running the prison. What do you think they're doing every day now, the kids?

What do you think a day in their life is right now? I think I just heard from somebody who lives down in Miami and would see Jared and Ivanka out at a restaurant every night. So they're kind of living the high life. They made six hundred and forty million dollars, you know, during their time in the White House. You know, they still have all that money. And they disappeared. As you well know, they sort of dropped off the social media landscape. She was right there every day and now she just disappeared. So I think they're nervous. You know, I don't know that because Don came up to

Bedminster. The father is in New Jersey now at his golf course. They had renovated a cottage on that property while they were president. They are while he was president. They renovated the Kushner's a big cottage there. So they may be hiding out there at some point. My guess is they're still in Florida. I think, you know, Don Jr. every day is the same. He's a cokehead, right? So he's waking up, he's snorting, he's doing his little podcast rants. You know, he's probably reading Guns and Ammo for a few hours, you know, like what's her name, roughs him around a little bit. You know, he has some dinner, you know, checks his Twitter or whatever, you know. I think Eric's the one who's really sweating.

And as you know, I used to call him Twizzlers. That was my nickname for him because he would steal all the red Twizzlers off the craft service table. Eric used to steal the Twizzlers. Twizzlers was here again. Yeah, he would take all the red Twizzlers. Here's the thing. That family was basically like broke when they started shooting that show. Like Mark Burnett had to rent the furniture that they put in the office when they first showed up because everything was so threadbare. People forget, but he didn't have a decent paycheck before that. He had blown his father's inheritance. And all of a sudden, Burnett approaches him and he gets his NBC paycheck. That's why he brought in the kids. It was for the money. They wanted those SAG wages and they'd show

up and ask for an extra per diem. I didn't get my per diem. I need for the money. You know, they wanted those SAG wages and they'd show up and ask for like an extra per diem. Like I didn't get my per diem. I need another hundred bucks. And it's like, your dad's supposed to be a billionaire. But at the end of the day, you know how a craft service is set up, you know, cause you're shooting remotely kind of thing. You know, it's not like a permanent studio you're shooting in some place you rented. So they'd have a craft service table and, and junior scrump, I called him scrump. He would steal all like the cliff bars and stuff. And then Eric would steal all the Twizzlers.

So my nickname was Twizzlers, you know, cause like, you know, those big like things, you know, those big, like plastic boxes of Twizzlers, he would just take them all. He's, he's like a child, you know, he's not a, he blocked me a long time ago. Cause I said, sons out, guns out, sons out, gums out and put a picture of him. But he's nervous, you know, and he's he's struggled, you know, like he has his own issues. Those family, you know, there's no shame in taking care of problems you have. That family didn't. They saw shame in it and they hit all these things.

So none of those guys are very sane or sober. Let's just put it that way. They all have their issues. And when you're not good with yourself, things like external pressures really cause you to fold, you know? So I think they're folding. I think, you know, Eric, Eric has probably taken it the hardest, you know? Well, Noel, I want to thank you for joining us today on the Midas Touch podcast. I want to thank you for all the work we've done together and we will continue to do in the future. Everybody, please check out the Noel Kastler podcast and would love to have you back on the show. Dude, it would be an honor. I'll come back anytime and keep doing what you guys are doing. You know, Jordan, I want to see you on the stand up stage, man. got to start doing some stand-up too, okay? All right, good deal. Let's get him out there. I'm going to open for me sometime, brother. I love it. All right, I'm here. You're not welcome, but I can see a stand-up in you, dude. All right, let's do it. It's a big statement. You heard it here first, Jordy,

the stand-up comedian opening for Noel Kastler at a venue near you no castler thank you for joining the Midas Dutch podcast when we come back after these messages we have pulitzer prize winning investigative journalist carol lenning washington post investigative reporter and author of the new york times bestseller zero fail we will be right back after this. What's up, Midas Mighty? Ben Micellus here, joined by my younger brothers, Brett and Jordy Micellus. Have you got your Midas merch gear? If you haven't gotten your Midas merch gear, I don't know what's taking you so long. I got my gear. Most of the Midas Mighty got their gear. We have some incredible stuff.

Isn't that right, Brett? That's right. And with the new CDC guidelines that say you no longer have to wear masks indoors or outdoors if you've been vaccinated, a lot of people have been asking us, how do you let people know you've been vaccinated? How do you know if you're around other vaccinated people? A lot of people are concerned. But, you know, we already thought about this, guys. We got our Vaxxxxed and relaxed merch line.

You could get it now if you still want to wear masks, if you still feel comfortable wearing masks around indoors or outdoors. We got the masks. We got the tees. We got the shirts. We got it all. And we got more on the way. So let people know you've been vaccinated.

Shop at store.midastouch.com to get yours. And that's not all we have. We got the club democracy gear. We got the shout out to the Midas Mighty gear.MidasTouch.com to get yours. And that's not all we have. We got the Club Democracy gear. We got the shout out to the Midas Mighty gear. We got it all. Go check it out. That's store.MidasTouch.com. Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast joined by Carol Lennon.

Carol is a Washington Post investigative reporter. She's also a New York Times bestselling author. And congratulations because her most recent book, Zero Fail, The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service, I think the last time I checked is number two overall on the New York Times bestseller list. Let's get that to number one. And that just came out, I think it was in May, right, Carol? May 18th, that came out? Yeah, the book came out May 18th. The New York Times bestseller list came out yesterday. So you guys are super prescient to book me on your show. That's all Geordie right there. And then a year before, in 2020, you co-authored with Philip Rucker a book called A Very Stable Genius. So you've been super busy,

Carol, and we thank you for taking the time to join us on today's Midas Touch podcast. It's my pleasure. I'm looking forward to what you guys are going to ask. Right. Well, let's start with A Very Stable Genius. Was your conclusion in the book, Carol, that Donald Trump was indeed a very stable genius? You know, because I'm a reporter rather than an op-ed writer, Phil and I, Phil Rucker, my great colleague on this book, we set out to figure out, like to stress test the president's own phrase. You know, he said it once in 2018, and then he said it five more times, calling himself a very stable genius, sometimes a brilliant genius. And so we wanted to talk to all the people that were in the room with him when he made decisions and kind of just ask them, what'd you think? Describe to us what

you saw. And even the people who really supported his agenda and joined his administration with varying feelings of excitement and concern, but who joined with hopes that they would be able to help him execute his agenda, pretty much to a person came away disappointed that he was not stable and was not a genius. And so in addition to being disappointed and coming to that conclusion, the book covered the first three years of the administration. And obviously, what we saw in the conclusion of the fourth year with the insurrection, I think, you know, shocked a lot of people that even for someone who, while others are saying this is someone who may be deeply flawed and deeply problematic, to full-fledged incite an

insurrection was something that a lot of people, still surprised about. Were there predictive features in the book or looking back at what was the data there in your book? I love that you asked that, Ben, because Phil and I both expected that we would write one book. We fully, what the president is like behind closed doors, what makes him tick, what motivates him separate and apart from what he was telling us all the time on national television or in tweets, you know, but we also saw, we weren't going to write a second book, but this 2020 was so unbelievable, so hard to really fathom. And yet all the predictors for how the president would handle that crisis were sort of foretold in 2017 through 2019. And in our book, his emphasis is on optics and PR rather than governing and substance. His focus is on,

you know, how he's winning the PR war of the day rather than whether or not there's an actual success. That may be okay when we're talking about how he manages his ban on certain people coming into the country, or it might be okay to focus on optics when it comes to the border wall, separate and apart from the disaster of separating children from their families. But the optics might be all right until there's a true crisis. And then it's a worry because all of those features that we documented in the book, focus on self, focus on optics, focus on personal political gain overall. Those did not fare well in 2020.

And when you're interviewing these people who maybe support his agenda and who come to these conclusions about him, but yet they still stay in his orbit. They still take the abuse, the mockery of themselves and their family members with a lot of politicians who have backgrounds that you think that they would stand up. Do you have any sense, based on your reporting, the people who are still around him today, the fact that the Republican Party seems to still be rallying around him as his leader. In your reporting, do you have any sense of what's that driving force? The former president, Donald Trump, is still sort of the titular head of the Republican Party. He's the most powerful person represented as a Republican in the country. And there's nobody that can sort of spar with him or beat him at in terms of name recognition and popularity. On top of, there are a lot of people

that have pulled away from him, Republicans who have pulled away from him personally. I think about Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump don't speak anymore. And yet, many of Mitch McConnell's decisions, as is true for many Republicans in the Senate and the House, many of their decisions are guided by appeasing, pleasing, following Donald Trump's lead. Because, again, those voters align so closely with Donald Trump and sadly were encouraged to believe something that's not true, that the election was stolen. In 2014, you won a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for reporting in connection with the NSA's expanding spying on Americans. Your new book, Zero Fail, goes into parts of the national security apparatus with the Secret Service. Before talking about the new book, what's drawn you, though, to this area of national security and the kind of apparatus or sometimes most frequently the secret apparatus that surrounds our executive branch?

I started off as a reporter who was really wanting to do deep dive investigations, government accountability. And when you think about where the highest risk for failure, the highest risk for danger to our country, the highest risk for violation of our civil rights as Americans, one of those areas is national security. Also, it kind of fits in my wheelhouse in one personal respect. And that is that my reputation at the paper is I can usually get people to talk about things that don't talk about them normally. And I don't know why that is, but national security issues are really sensitive. Most people run screaming who work in this field from reporters, but I've just had the good luck to win the trust of people who are in

that field. And so it's a natural fit. I trust and honor them and they trust me with their truth. And so Zero Fail really tells in many cases, the kind of history of the Secret Service starting with Lincoln, but it also talks about, you know, some of the more recent problems that have surrounded it. Obviously, I don't want you to kind of give away the book. But, you know, if you can basically explain at though a high level, you know, what changes existed, you know, or take place from, you know, when the Secret Service was, you know, in its infancy to the Obama and Trump administration. So great way you asked that. There are three big moments from my perspective, and I guess you could say four in this book about the arc of the

Secret Service's rise and fall. All of Americans, I wasn't alive then, by the way, I'd like to brag on that. I wasn't alive at the time that Kennedy was killed. Although some editors back then tried to get me to write the 25th anniversary and were shocked when I said that I wasn't born then. That assassination, a president, handsome, young, beautiful wife, running for re-election, whether he was hated by some or loved by some, he was an iconic figure. The idea of him being gunned down in American city was America shared that trauma. But the Secret Service, for them, it was a gut punch like nothing, no other. People committed suicide. There were suicides in the service over this lingering guilt. There was alcoholism that followed this terrible tragedy because they wore it as their personal responsibility. In other ways, they couldn't have been prepared for what happened that day because it wasn't something they actually routinely trained for.

You know, somebody shooting at the president from on high. The service remade itself, rebuilt itself, reinvigorated itself after that moment. They vowed never again. And they put their money where their mouth was. They added 280 agents and officers. They computerized their lists and systems for tracking threats. They developed a kind of training to make split-second reactions, no longer look over their shoulder when they hear gunshots, but do something the moment they hear gunshots. And they were

vindicated about their training when, in 1980, Ronald Reagan was almost fatally shot and killed. That assassination attempt unfolded very differently. You know, the training kicked in, the instincts, it all went well. Moment number three in our list of four is 9-11. The country poured all of its resources, billions of dollars into fighting terror in the skies, especially stopping terrorists and truck bombs and dangers and poisons from getting in at our borders and our ports. There was one little teeny agency in that huge Department of Homeland Security that kept getting shortchanged proportionally, and that was the Secret Service. They weren't getting the cool new toys. They weren't getting the money. They weren't getting the staff, but they were getting added mission. And so after 9-11, there is a slow, gradual slide in the Secret Service's ability to deliver on its zero fail mission. get sloppy or really worse. There were some people engaged in misconduct that I can talk about later, but they were so stretched thin. It was almost like the days before Kennedy was killed.

Agents who knew they were exhausted, running and gunning, they knew they couldn't keep up. And they'd had a lot of security lapses. They got lucky and nobody has been killed since John F. Kennedy. Does the operation of the Secret Service, does it stem from the top? I guess what I'm getting at is, you know, do you see a noticeable difference between the Secret Service under President Obama to Trump to Biden? Is there differences in morale, the way they're treated, the way they're supposed to react around the president? So this is so interesting, the way they're treated, the way they're supposed to react around the president? So this is so interesting, the relationship between a president and the Secret Service, because a lot of times the agency adopts a little bit the personality and the challenges and the metabolism of the president in office. There were a lot of agents that weren't too keen on President Obama, his policies, let's

say, his agenda. They were not big fans. Detail agents who were right by his shoulder, they liked the guy. But the agency was in a freefall during Obama's two terms, a freefall, losing people faster than they could hire them. People were burning out. Secret service officers responsible for protecting that 18 acre compound that's supposed to be the most secure in the world, literally were working every other day off. They were just working it. So, you know, six day weeks, not five. And that is gonna make your reflexes a little bit dull. And it's also going to piss you off. So this is a time of epic Keystone Cop moments, just on and on and on. A shooting, forgive me, I won't go into all the details and give it all away per

Ben's description, but you know, a shooting at the White House that the Secret Service doesn't realize the house has been hit for four days. But a White House usher and a cleaning lady do. A jumper in 29 seconds who's able to get from a public sidewalk into the White House, right through the front door and into the East Room, passing the Obama's personal residential steps on his way. March 2017, forgive me, I'll stop there. Just serial failure. No, you got to give the March date now because other people are going to go, what happened on March? Okay. So, so actually I'll just have to do one little segue before I get to March. I have to say one more during Obama. Mrs. Obama, forgive me, Michelle Obama, first lady is just doing the normal mom thing. She's taking her two daughters to Disneyland in California after they get out of school. Just like a fun girls trip.

Let's have some fun. School's over. An intruder walking down the street in Beverly Hills gets up to her presidential suite floor because they hadn't had enough agents to man or woman the entrances to the hotel and the stairwell. So this guy just gets up there all the way up. Thank goodness there's a guy with a long gun in front of her door. But like, what if that had been an assassin with a real plan? Once again, Secret Service gets lucky. This person

doesn't have a plan. So Trump, you asked Brad about the differences under Trump. So Trump is really a person really, again, focused on how things look. I got to project strength. My agencies have to make me look good. My agencies have to be deployed for my political benefit and especially getting reelected. And so he doesn't pick up the baton and neither does his White House or his administration and say, oh, it appears in all these IG investigative reports that the Secret Service has been really in trouble and they're the Secret Service. And March 2017, again, a person without a real plan, but is carrying a weapon, two cans of mace, hops over the White House fence, and is on that secure compound, allegedly secure compound, for 17 minutes before they're detected. Why? Because cameras on the fence line, sensors on the ground and on the fence line, lights are on the fritz. So nobody can find this guy and he is so relaxed.

He sits down, ties his shoe at one point. He's so relaxed. He wanders over gently, carefully and tries to open, jiggles the door of the east entrance to the mansion. One doesn't open, wanders around to the south, where there are no fewer than a dozen entrances and staircases up to the president's residence. He's at home watching television. So this just cannot be that you had somebody get in on 2014, everybody promised it would get fixed. And then somebody gets in again on 2017. The agents who risked their careers and took such amazing steps to tell these secrets to me, we can't shortchange them by allowing that to stand. They deserve better. America deserves better. The president deserves better. And that's the thing, everything that you're saying right

now, these are from firsthand accounts, right? These are from people who have told you directly who worked in the agency, which makes failure, every security blip, all the sex-related misconduct. And what this person said to me was, look, they cannot do the job as it is now. If you watch the show, this is exactly almost verbatim what this person said. If you watch the show 24, you would die if you think the Secret Service has that level of technology. So first off, we need kind of like movie Hollywood level technology for the Secret Service, not 1900s technology that's failing. Next, this person says they can't do the mission that they have now because it's too big. The Secret Service, you and I think that they protect the president's life, make sure he's awake in the morning, Make sure he goes to bed alive at night.

But they protect 42 other people. President's grandchildren. Now the vice president's stepchildren who are grown and have jobs. Senior officials and cabinet members. We used to protect the treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin. He didn't have a threat assessment against him, but he had a 24-7 detail. I'm sure that helped him get through airports and made him look important, but it was a lot of money. They're also in charge of securing events that large gatherings of Americans that could be targeted by terrorists. So they protect Super Bowls, they protect Olympics. They also continue to do their legacy mission, which predates their job

protecting the president, financial crimes, and now more modern financial crimes, cyber crimes, hacking, internet disruptions, counterfeit money as they used to all along. There are a lot of agencies that do those kinds of investigations, but the Secret Service has all of that to do. And what they really, I'm sorry, it's a long answer, but what they really need is a smaller mission and the commensurate tools to do the number one job, protect the life of the presidency, protect the surety, the safety of the democracy. And now have you been in talks with the Capitol Police since the insurrection? I had the honor and pleasure of interviewing for the record,

so I can say it out loud, Chief Sund, who was the Capitol Police chief when the insurrection occurred, when the riot occurred. People have different views of what the right word is for that. And I gave his first person account in the Washington Post of what that day was like in the days before it. It's chilling. He was in a command center watching, as he described to me, his troops getting clobbered. And he was on a phone call, literally begging for the Pentagon to help and was initially told that the Pentagon didn't like the optics of sending the National Guard to the rescue. I mean, that's that's gut wrenching to hear. So what do you think they make of, you know, no commission and Republicans doing everything that they can to block 9-11 style commission? The Capitol police are despondent about it. In fact, today, Gladys Sicknick, the mother of the officer who died, Brian Sicknick, he had two strokes the day after,

and he'd been attacked with some sort of spray, which is believed to be bear spray, multiple times while he was on the line trying to protect lawmakers. Gladys Sicknick is now visiting lawmakers, one by one, Republicans, telling them that it's a slap in the face to her and to her son's colleagues to not want to get to the bottom of what happened. You know, the DOJ, forgive me, the Justice Department is investigating, you know, the crimes that may have occurred, multiple felonies that day, attacks on police officers, attempts to kill police officers, all felonies. But that doesn't get to the bottom of investigating what are the roots of this group that obviously planned to breach the Capitol? What started that? Who didn't spot it? What were the security planning

failures? What were the intelligence failures? Why didn't the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have a true joint sort of threat assessment for January 6th? If we don't learn those things, it's going to happen again. Carol, what do you have planned now that you have this? I mean, I don't know how, I should probably ask you this question first, which is how do you find the time to do the investigative reporting that you do for the Washington Post? We see on MSNBC, we appreciate your time here today, but I mean, two books, you know, it just seems like a, like a ton. So for people out there, just what's the process like for writing like that?

I have a totally patient, lovely husband and two similarly patient children. But also I look like a genius, right? Because I have two books coming out roughly in a year and a half's time. But I had written most of the Secret Service book before Donald Trump. I wouldn't say before he was inaugurated, but around that, by around like the third But I had written most of the Secret Service book before Donald Trump. I wouldn't say before he was inaugurated, but around that, by around like the third month of his presidency, I had most of the Secret Service book written. But the Trump presidency presented such a historic moment. And I, you know, our publishers felt very strongly that that story was extremely timely,

time sensitive. And so I leapt into writing the first draft of history for the Washington Post, and then the book that captured those first two and a half years up to impeachment. And then I had to write some new chapters about how the Secret Service fared under Donald Trump and bring it forward to January 6th, which Jordy was asking me about. And now just to conclude with the Biden administration, granted, we've only been, you know, 100 plus days into the administration. Any changes or any significant differences that you've seen in your discussions with Secret Service?

I think it's too early to make a great, broad, brash statement. I think it's a little early to say. I think there's a wait and see attitude on the part of the Biden administration. You know, they clearly now have detail leaders, supervisors on Biden's detail that he's very familiar with. They were installed just before the inauguration. And they are people he worked with and who protected him when he was vice president, and a supervisor who protected Jill Biden when she was the second lady, so to speak. So I think they're in a watch and wait mode, studying exactly how that relationship goes. But the Secret Service is familiar with Joe Biden, so it's not like a brand new client. The question now is, what is the president going to do about what he's learned about

the struggles of this agency, this group of public servants, many of them incredibly dedicated? What is he going to do to really give them what they need? Are you optimistic? I try not to be speculative. And journalists generally are pessimists, but we have a little bit of gallows humor, but seriously, I just hope that somebody pays attention. And really, I'm so glad you guys wanted to do this podcast because you're helping ring the alarm bell that the agents and the officers who spoke to me wanted wrong, right? You're,

you're shining a light on a problem that they can't live with anymore. Professionally, they care so deeply. So I hope I didn't say I'm hopeful. I hope your journalist background wouldn't let you say hopeful. You'd have to have an asterisk. Carol Lenning, thank you so much for joining the Midas Touch podcast. I enjoyed every minute. You can check out Carol Lenning's new book, Zero Fail, The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service at a bookstore near you if we still have bookstores or otherwise get it online immediately and tweet about it. Let us know what you think about the book and let us know that you're honoring the book. It was an honor to have Carol on the podcast today. we will be right back after these messages

welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast we've had some great guests today yo this was a this was a great show this was a great show i I mean, Noel was incredible. I mean, Carol was amazing. I mean, that was... Dude, Noel's hilarious. And Carol's a deep dive. Taking that deep dive into the Secret Service on the podcast, I learned a ton. I was nervous.

I was really nervous to ask her a question. I didn't know what I was going to ask her. No, just because you guys are so sharp with your questions. I didn't want to fuck it up. Don't be nervous. Listen, we always got your back, buddy, even though we even though we like to jab you here and now. Yeah, we don't want you to feel nervous. We don't want you. We want to set everybody here up for success. Carol Lennig is just a real quintessential investigative journalist that all reporters should aspire to be. I mean, in the age of the Internet, you don't know at this point, like who's a real journalist and who's like a fake journalist,

but she is as legit and as studied as in the weeds as you could get. And it was an honor to have her on earlier in the show. We, we talked a lot about Texas and we talked a lot about these Republican representatives, but I felt like we should end the show by talking about Arizona for a second, because we all know the Arizona craziness. We've talked about the fraud before, the bamboo ballots, the cyber ninjas, all the craziness going on there. And I know we have some dedicated followers who live in Arizona. I'll give a shout out right now to Midas Stacy, one of our followers who lives in Arizona. I was in Arizona this.

You were in Flagstaff. Yeah, I was in Flagstaff. My story with Flagstaff is I don't Google Flagstaff before going to Flagstaff. And everybody, you should Google locations before you just arrive there and think, you know, about the location and its climate. Because to me, Flagstaff, Arizona sounds very hot. It sounds like extra hot. It sounds hotter than Phoenix.

Right. And so I'm driving to the airport and I'm seeing, you know, the Uber driver saying, look, it's 97 degrees here. I'm like, oh crap, it must be like 120 over in Flagstaff. And so I look up the temperature in Flagstaff, it was 68 degrees Fahrenheit. I go, whoa, wait a minute. I go 60. I go, what is Flagstaff? How is Flagstaff 68? It was 68 at that time. And then it was going to be 38 in the evening. And I was like, whoa, wait a minute. Where am I going to? Yeah. The Arizona temperature differences are crazy because you're literally

I don't know if I'll be able to really do it justice. All I can say is that is such a Ben story. That is such a huge story, right? Can I give you two stories that are just like that, that are totally, there was one I've told you before that was medical malpractice for non-practicing physicians. I think I've told the story on the podcast before. I may have told it on Legal AF where I thought I was taking a class about medical malpractice of physicians because I was a non-practicing physician. I thought that that was a class for me, but it was a class on nurse for nursing. And then about five classes in, I raised my hand and I go, I love learning about nursing, but are we going to learn

about any other aspects of medical malpractice in my law school? They go, no, this class is about nursing and it's all the legal issues attendant to nursing. So that was one. The other one was when I was studying for the bar exam on the ethics portion of the exam, you give two choices of where you want to take it. You give your residence and then you give just another location. And so my first location was a Washington DC location where I went to law school. so my first location was a Washington DC location where I went to law school. And my second location was in a, was Hofstra university in long Island. So I thought, okay, if they move me around, I'm they know I live in Washington. So they're not

going to just change me to like a Hofstra location. Like if it gets overcrowded, I would at least learn about it, but it got overcrowded the day before. So I didn't realize that I didn't check the emails. I just assumed that I got my first choice. So the day before I'm, I'm getting ready the evening before I finished studying at midnight and I'm ready to go into, you know, just going to sleep for the day. And I open up to get my ticket and I'm living in Washington, DC. This is midnight. And the exam, the exam was 8 30 AM in the morning. Um, and I look at it and it goes, you've got transferred to Hofstra to take the exam in Hofstra. And so I had to go take a car up all night. And I took this exam on like zero sleep, literally zero sleep,

made it to Hofstra in my sweatpants. I'm literally picturing mom and dad right now, just rolling their eyes. Yeah, that's an extremely bent story. I don't know what's in the water in Flagstaff, so I hope you didn't drink it necessarily because there's a lot of crazy stuff going on with the GOP over there. And they just voted to strip the Democratic Secretary of State, the top election officials of all of her powers to the end of her term. What's happening here is another anti-democratic attempt. Remember these secretaries of states are the ones who certify elections. So when you see actions like this taken, you got to understand why they are doing it. They are punishing this person

for following the rule of law and certifying these wins for the Democratic candidates because they are anti-democracy. They are an authoritarian party. They are depriving the Secretary of State Hobbs of any role in elections-related litigation. And this comes from the same people who brought you, as we were joking about earlier, the cyber ninjas, the bamboo ballots, all this chaos. And they had this just total, incredible Twilight Zone-esque thing on Fox last night on Hannity, where they got all these GOP governors together to talk about the great success of the GOP. I mean, it's the biggest propaganda network on the planet. It's wild. If the sky is blue to them, it's the biggest propaganda network on the planet. It's wild. They just, you know, if the sky is blue to them, it's raining. It's just everything is just totally

backwards. And they even had, you know, Governor Ducey out of Arizona when they were talking about the fact that this was their fourth audit that they're doing. There's already been three audits that have shown that the results were correct. And Ducey's like, oh, yeah, the first three came out clean, but let's see what the fourth one says. Arizona is in a lot of crazy shit right now. And we should focus on that because as we've seen, and as they've even verbalized, these GQP politicians are looking to take the same craziness that they're doing right now in Arizona. And they're looking to nationalize that. They're looking to do, and Representative Gates and Marjorie Taylor Greene have expressed this explicitly. They want to take the cyber ninjas. They want to put them in Georgia. They want to put them

in Michigan. They want to run this charade or charade, however you say it, all across the United States. Just for Midas Touch listeners, Jordy once said charade, and so Brett is not actually- And that was proved to be 100% correct in the pronunciation. If you were living in the UK. If you were living in the United Kingdom. We all were at one point. Well, let's listen. From a historical, deep historical

perspective. Well, Brett, when you say anti-democratic, it should be clear to our listeners you're talking about small d. We're talking about democracy, not the Democratic Party. You're talking about small d. We're talking about democracy, not the Democratic Party. You're talking about really anti-democracy at this point. And here's the thing, too. The cyber ninjas, even from their evil perspective, have proved to be completely incompetent. They destroyed any custody of control over the voting equipment. They weren't able to do it in

the time they said they were going to do it. It was an utter shit show. Like it was a complete disaster. Like it's not even done successfully, like what they intended to do. And you have this, that's why it's really banana Republican-esque at its core. It's not even efficiently done. And so the fact that they look at this, this disaster, a disaster to democracy, but also just a disaster of doing things like the Trump administration just sucked. Like it just sucked as like from just an intelligent standpoint of connecting dots A to B. They just couldn't get anything done. And then the Republicans look at the cyber ninjas and go that right there. I want that in every single state. We need to do that because at the end of the day, I talked about this before. We took for granted our democracy. We took for granted all of us. We, generally,

we took for granted that our systems worked and were so effective. That's not the experience internationally. The experience internationally are non-functioning, failed governments frequently where all elections are basically riddled with tons of fraud and tons of interference and complete bribes. That's how other governments interact horribly. But that's why they look to America as a beacon of hope. And as the Republicans realize that with the demographic shifting of the United States, with positive changes happening, They don't want to be a part of that. They want to destroy, pillage, destruct our nation and just greedily take everything and turn America into what they call third world nations. And here's what I don't want you to

do at home. I don't want you to hear all this information. And listen, I know we sound the alarm every episode. It's important that we sound the alarm and that we keep sounding the alarm because our democracy still hangs in the balance. But I just want to say, you should use this as fuel to get more motivated than ever. I am sick and tired of people messaging me and saying things like, oh yeah, but if the GOP is doing all this stuff, then what's the point of even trying? Why even go out to vote? Why even do these things? Why even stay engaged? Because that's what they want you to do. When you say stuff like that, honestly, it reminds me of what the Trumpers were saying before the 2020 election when they were saying, oh, the Democrats are going to rig

it anyway, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then they lost. They lost everything because they stayed home. We do not want to be on the losing side of this in 2022 or 2024. The stakes are too important. So we're asking you, the Midas Mighty out there, to get involved, to stay active, to talk to each other, to get the word out, to sign up for phone banking, for text banking, to knock on some doors, to get your friends registered to vote, and to help your friends navigate any sort of voter suppression laws. At the end of the day, it's going to be up to you to save our democracy

and overcome these voter suppression efforts. You can save America and we are here to help you do that. So thanks for being with us. I think this has been a great episode of the Midas Touch podcast, covered a ton of ground, two incredible guests. We are so thankful for everybody who listens and for making all Midas Touch podcasts, top podcasts in the world. We got the Midas Touch podcast. We got Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen that we co-produce. And we have Legal AF right here on the Midas Touch Podcast channel every single Sunday. So please keep on listening, share with a friend. Thank you again. And we will see you next week on the Midas Touch Podcast. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.