The MeidasTouch Podcast - Teaching Dems to Fight w. Katie Hill and Rep. Jasmine Crockett

Episode Date: August 27, 2021

On today’s episode, the brothers have on two incredible guests! First, we speak with Katie Hill, former Congresswoman from California’s 25th Congressional District. During the interview, we discuss a variety of topics, from Katie’s time as a congresswoman and her unjust ousting to her new mission with ‘HER Time PAC’ whose objective is to provide financial support and mentorship to women running for office. Next, we bring on Texas State Representative Jasmine Crockett to provide the latest on the voter suppression bills being passed in The Lone Star State. The brothers round out the episode by discussing the tragic events in Kabul and much, much more. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please be sure to rate, review & subscribe. As always, thank YOU for listening! Remember to get your Meidas Merch here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Welcome to the Midas Touch podcast. Ben Micellis joined by my younger brothers, Brett Micellis and Jordy Micellis. We have a great show for you today. Guests, plural, include former Congresswoman from California's 25th Congressional District, Katie Hill, will join the podcast. It was Katie's 34th birthday yesterday. She's going to speak to us. We're going to be asking her questions on her journey from being a nonprofit activist,

helping the homeless crisis in Los Angeles and California to becoming a congresswoman, being embroiled in the partisan rancor there and persevering against the most difficult situations after she resigned. We will then have guest Representative Jasmine Crockett, Texas representative from Texas 100th State District. She's the state representative from Texas. She's one of the state representatives who left Texas. I believe Brett will be interviewing her while she is in Washington, D.C. still, which is interesting because some of her colleagues left Washington, D.C., went back to Texas, and there was debate earlier today and debate that's ongoing throughout the day and throughout this week, in fact, about the SB1 and their I believe it's their House Bill 3,

which are the voter suppression laws in Texas, which seem like unfortunately, they are going to be passed now that the democratic lawmakers have returned she hasn't uh returned and we will be interviewing state representative jasmine crockett how you guys doing today i'm doing great ben i'm doing well i'm really excited for these uh two interviews i gotta say so my wife got me these gummy bears from the supermarket the other day, and they've just been sitting on my desk for the past few days. As opposed to what? Where else would they come from? Jordy's joke is that they are marijuana gummies, Brett. Yes. No, no, they're literally regular gummy bears. But because they have been in front, I honestly don't even like

them very much. But because they've been in front of me, I've just been... I ate half the... I ate half the container, and all I've been doing is eating gummy bears and drinking coffee the entire day for the last two days. This cannot be a healthy diet, but that's why I am here and energized. I'm ready to go for the minus-topped

podcast. Popping the gummy for the show. Let's go. Popping weed gummy. I feel like we'll get into some topics today don't even like them. I'm doing well. Guys, it's my puppy's birthday. He turned one today. Midas Mello. Happy birthday, Midas Mello. It's very fitting that it is.

I believe it's National Dog Day, Jordy. You know what podcast listeners love? They love clapping inside of their ears. I think that's the number. They love you leaving your microphone. Jordi doesn't fully understand what a podcast is, but that is okay. We are using for those out there. That's Jordi's dog that he's allergic to.

He's showing it on the screen for those listening. Happy birthday, Mello. Jordi, you've got great work, Jordy, but we have to podcast. Let's get back to work. We've got a podcast to record. We are using new podcast software today. Software, hardware,

a combo of software, hardware. I don't really know technical terms for those who know me, but let us know if you like the sound of this better. It's supposed to make it sound in high definition. This is HD. This is an HD podcast, brothers. Oh, no, you're going to freak out, Ben. So here's the backstory here. Ben and Brett have been going back and forth whether we should upgrade the software from the Zoom that we've been doing

or something a little bit more premium, which is what we're on now. And the brothers have been a little bit of some tension today, I would say, talking about this new platform versus what we traditionally do. We'll see. You can let us know if you'd like. I think it looks better. I think we look crispier.

Jordy, I think they could see the glow in your eyes. It's the first time I'm not wearing a hat. I got a haircut. Jordy, no hat in HD, everybody. That's the Midas Touch podcast for you. Before bringing Katie Hill and Representative Crockett on the podcast, let's talk the news. We would be remiss if we didn't discuss the breaking story of today. Tragedy has struck in Afghanistan.

As of now, there have been multiple suicide bombs in Afghanistan. The situation is certainly dire. ISIS-K, a terrorist group within Afghanistan and Pakistan that wants to create chaos, wants to disrupt the transition, wants to keep fueling the never-ending war, and never-ending wars in the Middle East has taken responsibility for these acts. It's an evolving story. So for those listening over the coming days, we know that the death toll will be in the dozens. It's still not clear the full extent. A number of American service members, Marines, have been killed and slain by the ISIS-K terrorists.

And it's one of the things that when we reflect on the brutal and bloody concept of war, and we think about our excursions for decades, literally decades, in foreign territories that have caused the lives of tens and thousands of American soldiers and countless hundreds and thousands and millions of lives of others across the world. We need to reflect on why we were there so long. And nothing here in any way changes my view that Biden made the right decision in making sure American troops left Afghanistan. And if anything, I think it bolsters that. But you see kind of this combination on the GQP right of always wanting to criticize Biden regardless, but then also them wanting this never ending war in Afghanistan. You know, and you see a lot of the GQ peers seeming to insinuate that we need to then bring in more troops and I guess be there for what, more decades, three more decades,

four more decades. And so a horrible tragedy. And I hope that this drawdown and eventually leaving Afghanistan will take place in the coming days. But definitely have to mention that at the top of the show. In moments of crisis growing up, and I think back to 9-11 as one of the hallmark examples of this, the way America would come together in crisis, despite the fact where if you were a Democrat or a Republican, they'd come together understanding that we are here in a common

cause against a common enemy in order to protect the interests of the United States of America. And at some point, we lost our way in that. And it's really sad to see that while they are still counting the bodies, while they are still figuring out how many lives have been lost in these attacks, the rush to make this an extremely partisan issue, the rush to start taking the extreme measures like what we saw Kevin McCarthy say today, which is that Speaker Pelosi should be bringing back everybody to Congress before August 31st so they could sign a bill to keep American troops there indefinitely. That is a despicable thing to do, in my opinion. And anybody who is using this moment to take advantage of the situation for a political gain

and is trying to use this situation as a means to not withdraw our troops and to keep our troops there forever. You've got to look out for those voices, and those voices could come from people like Kevin McCarthy or Marjorie Taylor Greene. They could also come from the media. There are a lot of people invested in never-ending wars, and we need to stand firm and say that, no, this affirms our belief that we should not be in Afghanistan right now. We need to get everybody out of harm's way and we need to bring our troops home safely. Switching gears to infrastructure. This week, the House passed the $3.5 trillion budget blueprint and set a deadline for the infrastructure bill to pass. We spoke about

this on the last podcast that we believe there was going to be the vote. The vote, in fact, did take place. Remember, these are two related concepts, but slightly different. The $3.5 trillion budget blueprint is the reconciliation process where you do not require, it's basically filibuster proof in the Senate. bill if you could pass infrastructure items since they relate purely to budgetary matters by a simple majority versus requiring a 60 or more members in order to pass the threshold to vote. And so there are these two bills that are moving along. One is the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation. The other is the $1 trillion infrastructure bill. There was some tussling over should the infrastructure bill go first? Would certain moderate Democrats in the House of Representatives support the budget reconciliation,

which has the infrastructure items, though, that could not make it into the trillion-dollar infrastructure bill based on the Senate compromise. And this is good news for both bills because the $3.5 trillion budget blueprint is now moving forward, and there will be a vote on the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that will be set in late September. So good news on the infrastructure front. And this $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill, I cannot emphasize how incredible this bill is and how excited I am that it's at the stage that it's at. I think the House has done an incredible job at putting forth legislation. They've been incredibly productive. The $3.5 trillion bill will give free community college to Americans, child care, paid family leave, expand Medicare, and much, much, much more. The House is doing a

great job. Now we need to put the pressure on those senators that Ben was speaking of, those moderate Democrat senators, so to speak, the manschins, the Cinemas, and we need to urge them to pass this bill when it arrives at the Senate because this is really a life-changing bill that we need in this country to really bring us to the 21st century. Do you guys have faith in Cinema or Manchin? You know, generally not too much faith, but I think that this is such an important piece of legislation, I think they will have a lot of pressure to pass it. I think there'll probably be some more

negotiations in the process as the bill makes its way through the Senate. And I think ultimately, both these bills will be passed. Switching gears to the January 6th Select Committee expanding their probe. Brett and Jordy, did you see this? They are sending out subpoenas to the who's who of batshit crazy GQP insurrectionists on the list. You've got Rudy Giuliani, Steve Bannon, all of Trump's children except for Tiffany. So Don Jr., Eric and Ivanka, Roger Stone. Congratulations to Eric Trump for finally being included in a family affair. I'm sure it's like a huge honor for you not to be left out of this one. Tiffany, I'm sure your time is coming in the future.

Don't you worry. Because her biggest contribution, Jordy, was her birthday party in Miami. You remember the By Tiffany video was like DL, my favorite of all the Midas Touch videos. And we've done a lot of videos, but By Tiffany, where she threw the lavish birthday

and hit up all the Miami hotspots in the heart of the pandemic and was partying with the bottles and the candles and those. I think we got to play it. I think we got to play it. Social distancing rules are challenging, but imagine families dealing with the loss of a loved one. Tiffany Trump painted the town red, white, and blue for her 27th birthday. Closures and for older students missing out on a lot of memories.

Tiffany picked off the special celebrations at several Miami hotspots. A complete halt to major celebrations like weddings. She and her guests were treated to a lavish spread of sushi. 60% of closed businesses won't be reopening. After dinner, the crew headed over to Kiki on the River for bottles of champagne. I can relate to so many of you who might be looking for a job.

Believe me. You sacrifice, they celebrate. And that was, of course, as the nation was basically shut down due to COVID restrictions. And Tiffany went to, you know, went on the public stage at the RNC convention to rail against Democrats and tell everybody, I understand your pain. I lived your pain. I too had trouble getting a job. Believe me. Why do they say, believe, believe me? They're just a phoniest. If you tell someone, believe me, or hey, to be honest with you, those two things right there, those are red flags. If you have to expect to be honest, are you not being honest with me at the upfront of this? And just ridiculous.

And Brett, can you play the video of Representative Thompson and what he said about these records requests? I just have to ask you what was going on as far back as April 2020 that you want records from that early? Well, we have information that I can't share with you at this point that individuals were planning in anticipation of the election not going their way. By getting access to this information, we'll be able to prove it. That's Representative Mike Thompson, Democrat from California's 5th Congressional District. What do you think these subpoenas are going to find, Brent? I think, believe me, Ben, this is not good news for Trump and company.

And Trump is allegedly, I mean, you know, we see it in these ridiculous statements. He's freaking out. He's freaking out. He's pissed. He's back to partisan witch hunt. They're coming after me. How dare them? And when you look at the names, it's just a who's who of like the world's worst human beings who they are requesting, doing these record requests for. It's Trump, Pence, Trump Jr., Ivanka, Kushner, Eric Trump, Lara Trump, Mark Meadows. I mean, I could go on this list. Stephen Miller, Dan Scavino, Kayleigh McEnany, Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Rudy Giuliani, Alex Jones, Mike Lindell. I mean, we have seen video evidence of these people preparing the January 6th attack. We have seen the tweets.

So I can only imagine what is in those phone records and what they will find between these people, the Proud Boys, and other of these domestic terrorist groups that are out there. Guys, we have a domestic terrorist crisis here at home that we're dealing with, and I think that's one of the most difficult things right now about seeing what's happening in Afghanistan and seeing what's happening here is we're dealing with terrorism abroad and we're dealing with terrorism at home. So I think it's important that we are holding these folks accountable for the January 6th attacks. And this movement here is big, big, big news. And I wish them all the worst. I like that. I wish them all the worst as well. And let's bring in Katie Hill, former Congresswoman from California's 25th congressional district. It was a purple district that against all odds, she won in 2018. Let's bring in Katie Hill after these messages.

What's up, Midas Mighty? Want to thank everybody for subscribing, not just to the Midas Touch podcast, but to all the podcasts on the Midas Touch podcast network. We've got Kremlin File. We've got Legal AF. We've got Zoomed In. We've got the Maya Culpa podcast. Make sure you subscribe to all of those podcasts today. Subscribe now.

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Available for a limited time only at McDonald's. Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast. We are joined by Katie Hill, former congresswoman from California's 25th congressional district. she is the author of she will rise becoming a warrior in the battle for true equality you can find that at she will rise book.com and the founder of her time pack at her time 2020 and host of at naked politics the Politics podcast, a multi-hyphenate superstar. Katie Hill, welcome to the Midas Touch podcast. Thanks for having me. Excited to be here.

And you can see, Katie, I date myself by calling the podcast the At Naked Politics podcast. I know Jordi is going to make... You can visit our website at http:// Well, happy birthday, Katie. Yesterday was your 34th birthday, and you tweeted, I lived a whole lifetime just since I turned 30 when I was running for Congress, full of both joy and tragedy.

Can't wait to see what the next few years bring. Hopefully more joy and less tragedy. Onward and upward. So happy birthday, Katie. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. So on this journey, as you turned 34, what would you say is the biggest life lesson with four years in the public spotlight in a very unique and rare way. How do I put this delicately?

Can I curse on this? It's all cursing. Sometimes the show is just Geordie cursing. What did you say? I said, don't fuck up. That's like my best advice is just, you know, like there's a, there are things that you know that you shouldn't do and you should do. And life gets crazy and just keep it, keep it straight and narrow and do your best, I guess. But, um, yeah, that's, it was my, one of my first bosses who gave me that advice. Don't fuck up.

And I feel like I should have taken it better, but you know. And well, it's also not just don't fuck up, though, but it's also how people respond in situations of crisis and how people respond in in pivotal moments. I mean, look, in twenty eighteen, you were in a purple district. You ran against a Republican congressman. You weren't expected to win that race. You had a background in nonprofits, community organizing, helping the homeless community. I mean, what gave you the courage even then to run in 2018 and say, you know what? Fuck it.

I could beat this guy. I mean, honestly, it was it was the fact that Trump had won and that it felt like a crisis. It felt like something that we that needed to happen. And I knew, you know, I that Trump had won and that it felt like a crisis. It felt like something that needed to happen. And I knew who had run previously. I didn't think that he was going to be able to win in this district. And I know this. I'm here right now. I'm in the same district.

And I know and love this community. And my whole family is here. I grew up here, spent my whole life here. And I knew that it was going to take a certain kind of truthfully, um, uh, very just down to earth kind of real person to be able to win and who, who got the complexities of what this district is like. And, um, and I, I had a few different people who encouraged it. And then you look at people who have won, including the past president, and you're like, if that dude can do it, then why can't I? And it was a long shot race. It was something that we really didn't expect to be able to pull off, or certainly nobody expected us to,

even when I thought that we could. And because of that, there was like a really small team dynamic. And I was going through a really bad, you know, kind of end of my relationship with the person that I'd been with since I was 16 years old. And so it was kind of like a perfect storm of things. But, you know, we pulled it off and it was really incredible. And it felt like our seat was one that could have determined whether the Democrats got the majority in the House. And we knew how crucial that was in 2018 to put any kind of check on the president. And so, you know, even though everything turned out the way it did, I'm I don't regret anything on that front. And it seems like everyone's trying to break that code now as we go into 2022 and we look at these purple districts or we say, can we turn these red districts blue? And, you know, you see out there this denial of rationality

and this death cultish movement by what the Republican Party has become. And you look at Democratic policies and almost every policy is supported by the people. Yet you still see this incongruity between the messengers, the politicians and their ability to win and deliver those messages that, hey, by the way, I support all of those things you agree with. And that other person, they support the billionaires and want to kill you. So what are we what are we doing wrong? And as we look to 2022, what's your thoughts on how we win these districts that are borderline? Well, I think that we, as Democrats, we often come at it from a cerebral level, and that just doesn't work. We need to get to the heart of it for people. We need to get to

what drives their base instincts. And it's often fear. And I think that that's what Republicans have done so effectively for a long time is that they capitalize on fear and they find these catchphrases, they find these little things, these images that stick in people's heads and that they say, oh my God, the, the other, right? Like the other, whoever it might be, whether it's immigrants or, you know, refugees or socialists or whatever, like they make it or Black Lives Matter, like they make it so that there's this enemy, this other entity that is not you, that is not your community. And they vilify it.

And they say that if you vote for the other people, these bad guys are coming after you and your family. For us, we don't have concrete bad guys in the same way, right? Like we say poverty is bad or unaffordable housing is bad or, you know, the inability to consistently put food on the table, but we don't translate that into like right now, what is scaring people and what is making them stay up at night? And I think that we have to figure that out. And until we do, we're going to be kind of on this like little ledge of barely being able to maintain the majority. And I truly worry about 2022, whether we're going to be able to to keep the majority,

especially because of redistricting and how gerrymandering is happening and voting rights are threatened. And it's going to be tight. It's going to be really tough and it's going to take everybody showing up and understanding how important it is to pull it off. And it's kind of weird, right, because you actually look at the fake issues used to scare people by the GQP, but the real issues that these GQP governors, these Republican Congress members who don't support people wearing masks and are anti-vaxxers like these people are literally out in the open killing people. party, for whatever reason, is afraid to say, you know, you're a killer, you know, and I look at your district, like Mike Garcia, when you know, when you were unfairly, my view, and many others forced to resign, Mike Garcia is a crazy motherfucker. And this individual, this is the

result of kind of the democratic, you know, establishment here is that we now get, because of what they did to you, we now have Mike Garcia, who literally supports the insurrection, who is the biggest Trumper in the world. And it's the most frustrating thing there is. Yeah. Yeah, it is. And I think, you know, there's a lot that goes into this, right? And there's, and I think my decision to resign was, it was very personal. I didn't feel like I was pushed out at all. I think the timing was difficult because it was the height of the Me Too movement. to deal with, you know, accountability that is on a spectrum of like, how bad is this deed that you did, this misdeed that you did? The punishment or the expectation of what we do doesn't always fit the severity. And, you know, that's completely the opposite of the GQP is, you know, they don't have any accountability and they will excuse everything

and close ranks and defend their people no matter what. And I think that that's, we just, we're going to have to figure that out. And they close ranks around people who are accused of being sexual predators. In fact, that is in many ways a way to promote someone within that party. That's how they get career advancement, it seems. Doesn't it seem that way to you? Certainly. It certainly seems that way sometimes. And how you respond, though, to those situations, kind of going back to when you said, don't fuck up. But it's how you

respond to these things. You know, I remember in 2018, there was a lot of people writing Katie Hill off, you know, we're never going to see from Katie Hill again. And now you are out and loud, and you are pioneering, you know, everything with the pack, you're championing women candidates. And so, one, where do you're championing women candidates. And so one, where do you find the strength for that? And two, talk to us about some of these initiatives that you are now leading. Sure. I think the strength for it comes from a couple of different places. One is, you know, my family is just such a huge support for me. My mom is a total badass. My brother passed away and right, this was right after, um, I had resigned. Um, my brother tragically passed

away very suddenly. And, uh, and so I, I resigned in November of 20, or I guess, October of 2019. My brother died in January of 2020. Um, my mom had to have brain surgery. And like, then within six months, she was back in the middle of the pandemic as the head nurse at one of the largest hospitals in Southern California, like right in the height of it. And so, you know, strength is definitely and resilience is definitely in the family. But I think the other thing is, it's a bit of a like, well, screw you guys. You know, you might have pushed me out, right? You might have changed or derailed my plans, but you're not going to let that kill me, right? I'm not going to let that end things for me.

I still have stuff that I want to accomplish and I still feel like I have a role to play and meaningful contributions to make to the things that I think to accomplish. And I still have, you know, I still feel like I have a role to play on meaningful contributions to make to the things that I think are important. And right now, you know, there's so many things, right? Like the reason I ran for office in the first place is because it's hard to pick just one thing that you think is important and focus in on it, right? Because there's so many things. But right now, being on the outside of it, it allows me to say, okay, equality for women is something that I can kind of narrowly focus on more than if I were in office. And so the PAC, Her Time, is about promoting women candidates, helping women get elected, about promoting and fighting for and advocating for the issues that really impact us disproportionately. And I think, you know, this next year, we're

really going to be focused on maintaining the gains that women have made in the House of Representatives. We elected more women in 2018 than we have ever. And keeping those people there, they're some of the most vulnerable. They were in those, you know, in those purple seeds, just like I was. And keeping them there is going to be absolutely crucial. So we're focusing on 16 House seats that are these frontline districts, the ones that are in the most, you know, the most vulnerable spots for Republicans to try and pick up seats. And it's all women, so we're calling them our sweet 16. And we're going to make that our priority to make sure that they, because if one loses, I'm not kidding you. If one of those

16 women loses, and that's not to say that there's not plenty of men that need protection too, but my focus is this. If one loses, then we will lose the house. So that's not hyperbole. That's just because our margins are so narrow right now. We have to protect lose the house. So that's not hyperbole. That's just because our margins are so narrow right now. We have to protect them that much. So that's what I'm going to spend the next year doing. And that is Her Time Pack. And for our listeners who want to support, you can go to her-time.com. How do you break through the power structures, though, that have been in place for so long?

How do we make sure that women are fairly represented and are constantly just being able to put forth their vision and their perspectives? Well, that's what it boils down to is that it comes down to representation, right? And when we have women make up still a quarter of the House of Representatives and of Congress, just a quarter, it's even less in state houses across the country. And even fewer women are in executive offices, whether it's governorships or mayoral positions. And if you want to achieve equality, you have to have women at the top. You have to have women who have the highest seats at the table. And that goes from Congress to everywhere else. And so we can say these are

all of our priorities. These are the things that we want everybody, whether you're a man or a woman in power to support. But the truth is like lived experience really matters. And the fact that, you know, you have directly experienced sexual assault or harassment or, you know, discrimination, like these are, these are things that you might, you as guys might have empathy for, but you don't have the same, you just don't have the same ability to know, you might, you as guys might have empathy for, but you don't have the same, you just don't have the same ability to know, you know, what the root causes are or the ways that we're going to address them. And it's, you know, there's no simple answer for anything, right?

Like just in life, that's not something that we have the privilege or the luxury of, you know, omniscience, right? We, everything has, has downstream consequences and nothing is, you know, a bright, easy answer, but, but we have to keep pushing for it. And I, I think that that all starts with representation and, and there are so many barriers that are institutional and, you know, like this institutional sexism of the different standards that we hold men and women to, um, that goes very deep. And so for us to overcome that, we have to intentionally, I believe we have to intentionally elect women. We have to say all things being equal, I'm going to, and this is something that I can do. I'm going to support the man over the, I mean, sorry, the woman over the man. And, and when I have the opportunity to do

so now, that doesn't mean that I'm going to support a Lauren Boebert over, you know, a guy who's running as a Democrat in her seat, because you have to support people who have the same values as you. But, you know, when there's been primaries, when there's a good Democrat, who's a woman and a man, and, you know, I'm going to support the woman. So and when you look out there, like Ben was talking about, you see all these allegations against all these male senators, male congresspeople, anything from child sex trafficking to other sort of lewd behavior. Are you just bashing your head against the wall being like,

this is the biggest double standard on the world? What I had to go through, now looking at what these people are doing and they're just trudging along ahead without really much, you know, many people really saying anything like, how does that make you feel? And just, do you think there is a double standard there? Oh, the double standard is just so obvious, right? Like I think the fact, so I resigned and the number of sex scandals since then, um,, it's all been men who are the perpetrators. And you haven't seen, the first resignation that we've finally seen is from Cuomo when there was clearly

no other way out with him. And again, he's Democrat. I do not think that would have happened if he were a Republican. I think that they would have closed ranks and supported him. And not saying that that's what should happen. You know, I think it's right that he stepped aside, but, uh, but I do think that there's such a clear double standard when it

comes to both the way that we treat men and women, um, the way that men and women act and react in these kinds of situations to, you know, holding themselves accountable, um, to apologizing, to taking responsibility and, uh, and the way that the two parties do. So all of that kind of leads to this situation that we're in or this present that is women are held to a higher... Women in power are held to a much higher standard. And that means that, again, we just don't have the ability to screw up if we want to stay in those positions. And, you know, we're humans. At the end of the day, we're humans and you can't always do that. We do screw up. We do make mistakes or have things that, you know, don't go the way that we planned. And I think

that if we aren't careful about that, if we don't try, and this is why, you know, I'm fighting so hard to change the laws around revenge porn and around cyber exploitation because women are disproportionately victims. And if, if we, if things keep going the way they are, we can weaponize that in a way against women that just doesn't happen against men. That's, and that's exactly what happened in my case. Yeah. And it seems like women are held to impossible standards. And also it seems like Democrats are increasingly held to impossible standards while Republicans are held to no standards, zero, none, nothing. And like maybe the dissent of the Republican Party like is probably not most epitomized because there's so much horrible shit that is going on right now with the Violence Against Women Act, which has always, since its inception, it's been a bipartisan piece of legislation that has been passed without even

second-guessing it. Now I know it's passed in the House. I know it's being held up in the Senate. What's the latest with it, and what do you think is causing the blockage of a bill that should be, I mean, of course we should have a Violence Against Women Act. Yeah, it should be much easier to pass a Violence Against Women Act than it should be to pass an infrastructure deal. And the fact that that didn't happen, that it's not prioritized as such, and that it's politicized, it really shows you kind of the environment that we're in and the fact that women's needs and women's basic safety isn't prioritized in the same way. And so I think, you know, what we're seeing right now, and this started in when the House passed, when I was there in 2019, they passed pretty much the same version of the Violence Against Women Act, and it died in the Senate with Mitch McConnell in charge. Republicans basically

said that because we had put in, we as Democrats had put in some basic gun safety measures. These are, we're talking about closing the boyfriend loophole. So the loophole that had to be closed was that if it's a boyfriend or a partner or not a married person, then they're able to have full access to buying and keeping guns. And, you know, so we closed that loophole in the legislation. And the fact that we did that made it seem like the, you know, the NRA kind of went after their members and made it this, you know, they weaponized it to say that

Democrats were politicizing it. And, you know, you can turn gun rights stuff into the most polarizing issues when it just is common sense. And if you don't fall victim to the rhetoric and the scare tactics that the right uses, it's just common sense. It's just these things that so many people agree on, like universal background checks, right? Those are not things that's to the general public. 80% of people believe that we should have universal background checks. And yet when it comes to passing the legislation, it seems to be impossible. Now, Katie, because you brought her up earlier, I mean, how does it make you feel like deep down knowing that someone like Lauren Boebert or Marjorie Taylor Greene is in office,

you know, basically helping insurrectionists on January 6th and you're not allowed to be in office anymore. Yeah. I mean, when January 6th happened and I had so many friends and people who I used to work with in the Capitol whose lives were genuinely in danger, that was one of the hardest moments in terms of kind of, did I make the right decision by stepping down? Um, and, you know, I don't think we have a right answer for that. Um, I do know that I, uh, uh, that I would not be helping insurrectionists. Um, and, uh, and, you know, Mike Garcia, he, we, I can't say that he helps the insurrectionists, but he was photographed with them right beforehand. And yeah, I certainly struggled with that. And, you know, serving in Congress like you, it's Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert.

They're one thing. Right. And they're extreme examples of it. And I actually think that because they're women, like we kind of see it even more. But there are so many idiots in Congress. Like, you don't, I certainly didn't feel like, oh, these people deserve to be there more than me ever. So I guess that's just like, well, that shows you how, how messed up kind of our electoral system is, um, that, you know, people who are deeply, deeply dis unqualified and, um, and the opposite of what we should have in any kind of position of power. You know, it just, it is what it is. And it means that voters need to have more opportunities to, um, to see that and to, and to actually vote and remove them and replace them with people who are better.

You're such a badass. You have fought back every step of the way and it's been amazing to see. What's your message for people out there who get knocked down? How do you rally back? You've got to get back up. Yeah, I mean, you've got to get back up. I was, I spent my childhood with horses and that was the thing that you, you know, from riding a horse, if you fall off, you'll have to get back on because otherwise it's going to get in your head and it's going to make it so that, you know, the horse thinks that whatever they did to get you off is going to work every time. Like you, you have like, that's drilled into your head from the time that you're, you know, um, like for you first start riding is that if you fall off, you got to get back on. And, and that's, that's kind of the, um, the mentality that I think

we have to have with everything. You know, if it's something that matters to you, if it's something that's important, um, you can't give up and the direction that your life goes or that, that the path kind of takes you might not be what you thought, but I would say that that's the case with almost everything in life. I mean, there's so many things that went a different direction than what I thought. But you got to make the most of it and figure out what's important to you and how you keep moving forward. And that's kind of the only option that we have.

Katie Hill, thank you so much for joining the Midas Touch podcast. When we come back from these messages, we will be joined by Texas State Representative Jasmine Crockett to talk about all that's going on in the state of Texas with the fight against their voter suppression bill, their fight against a fascist governor in Greg Abbott, and more. We'll be right back after these messages. Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast. We are joined by Texas State Representative Jasmine Crockett. Jasmine is a freshman state representative representing Texas's 100th representative district. State representative, welcome to the Midas Touch podcast. Thanks for having me, guys. I'm really excited to talk to you. So Representative Crockett, even as we're speaking right now, there's a lot going on in Texas. There's a lot going on in Texas every day. formed and thus preventing these horrific voter suppression bills, SB1, HB3, from being

voted on in Texas. But over the past 24, 48 hours, my understanding is that some of the Democratic lawmakers returned to the state. There was a quorum and there's a debate going on, literally we're recording this for this heinous and horrific voting rights bill. So what in the world is going on? And you look like you're in a hotel room still in Washington, D.C. So you have to make it make sense, Representative Crockett. Make it make sense.

I think you're asking way too much of me. Asking me to somehow make sense of anything that goes on in the state of Texas. I don't know if you've heard of a little man named Greg Abbott, but nothing makes sense in the state of Texas. And so, first of all, I am really excited to be with you guys. So thank you so much. But, yeah, essentially what happened is, just so that people understand, quorum, according to our Constitution in the state of Texas, is two-thirds of the body. We have 150 elected state representatives to represent approximately 30 million people in the state of Texas. Of those 150, 83 historically, when I say historically, I'll make it make sense. But 83 are Republicans and 67 have been Democrats.

I say historically because when we swore in in January, those were the numbers. One of my freshman colleagues, one of the Republicans, he actually won a special election because his predecessor caught COVID, a Republican congressman, and passed away. And so one of my classmates that came in with me, Jake Elsey, he won the special election and he was sworn into U.S. Congress. So now that number dropped from 83 to 82 for the Republicans. And then one of my Democratic colleagues wanted to take a position with a college. And so there was a conflict. He couldn't also be one of those that decides how much the college gets. So he had to choose between taking that position or remaining in the legislature. And so he recently resigned. And so now that number is 66. So our current numbers are different from where we started. When we initially broke quorum, there were a total of 57 of the 67

Democrats that agreed to break quorum. The quorum number was 100. I still argue that the quorum number is 100, but the parliamentarians said, no, it changed to 99 with the two vacancies. I don't know that I agree with her, but she makes the rules. And so that's that. And so with 57 members agreeing to break quorum, we still had enough. We did break quorum. We did come to DC. We did try to move the needle. I do believe that we did move the needle on voting rights. Sadly enough, you know, we have a democracy, but Democrats, for whatever reason, have a hard time sticking together. I mean, those Republicans, they'll stay together through anything, right? Like, you know, it's like, kill the kids. Yes, we're in, you know, like, together, like, no matter what, it's like the

craziest thing ever, right? Like, you know, one of the things I think the governor has now added to this special call where I'm like, hey, guys, no reason to go back. Nothing but bad shit there. But you know, whatever, they decided to go back. And the governor just added today, like, yeah, no, no, no, no one's going to be required to get vaccines. You know, he wants to codify this, right? Like I remember having vaccines when I went to school as a little girl, but I guess that's like a thing of the past. We don't do those kinds of things anymore. Even if it means saving lives, who cares about those? So the Republicans, they will stick together no matter what. But we started off and we were already fractured, to be perfectly honest, because we had 10 Democrats who refused to leave the floor in the first place. Here's my question, though. So why are you in D.C. though still? And while

other people are there in Texas right now and ostensibly the very first thing that, you know, the Republicans did there is to vote on this sham bill, which is a voter suppression bill completely built off of the big lie. Yeah. So I just decided I didn't want to be a part of the assault on democracy. I am not very good at being a politician. And so this is a dog and pony show. We all know where this is going to end up. And for me, I didn't want to be a part of the sham. You know, there are certain things that we have to do because we know that we're going to do things like we're going to be going into litigation. Right. But we've made a record on voting rights like over and over. Like this isn't our first rodeo. Honestly, the Republicans killed this bill the first time. It really wasn't

us, to be perfectly honest. I'd like to take the credit, but it really wasn't us. SB7 during the regular session actually passed out of the Senate, came to the House, passed out of the House, right? So therefore it passed the Senate, it passed the House. For those that don't understand how this works, the next step really is normally to go to the governor's desk. But because the Senate wanted to make this bill worse, when it got back to the Senate, the Senate said, no, no, no, we won't concur. What we're going to do is strip out any and all amendments that were put on in the House.

And then we want to go ahead and do some other terrible things like sold to the polls and make sure that there's some avenues so that we can overturn elections. And then they left it with only two hours on the clock. And so we were able to kill it. But honestly, if the Republicans really wanted their bill, they could have had their bill because it did pass both chambers because we didn't have the ability to kill it. And even though I was screaming then, why are we sitting here for this? We sat there. They negotiated. They made deals, deals that did not hold up.

And, yeah, so finally people got fed up. And in the last two hours, we killed it. You know, I decided I didn't want to go back because I know that this is nothing but a game. There were deals that were made. Like the speaker just got upset because he had already told everybody, hey, we don't want that R word coming out. Nobody say racist. Nobody say racism. We don't we don't want people to feel bad on the floor.

It's like, dude, like we're calling the spade a spade. Right. Like, that's what it is. Like, let's be honest. Right. And he's like, don't do that. Right. So like they make these deals and it's all theater. And I'm just a little bit more authentic than that. I am honest with my constituents. This bill is going to pass while I'm there or not. There's not going to be any amendments put on that bill that makes sense. We won't expand access to the ballot box. They refuse to do simple things like online voter registration, same-day voter registration. They don't want these

things, the things that actually make sure that more people vote. And it's not we're Democrats. We just want more people to vote. We don't say, hey, everybody can vote except for Republicans. Like, that is the issue. The Republicans know that they have not been standing on any policies that make sense for the majority of people. And so what they want to do instead is limit the number of people that can vote because they refuse to actually deal with actual policy. Calling a spade a spade. You mentioned Governor Greg Abbott. He is a psychopathic murderer, incompetent human being. Agree? I agree. And how do you grapple with, you know, you're a civil the state, the governor, who literally on a daily basis is trying to kill the people of his state. I don't know if there is any grappling.

You know, you don't grow up believing that really anybody's evil. That's not how any child really grows up, right? And even though I do criminal defense work as well, and I think that I've seen my fair share of personalities, I'll say, it is really even more treacherous to have someone who has been entrusted to do what's right by all people. Doesn't matter who voted for you, but to protect us, to guide us through our most challenging times. And essentially, Texas has been lacking in leadership. That's what it looks like. It looks like, you know, over 50,000 COVID deaths. It looks like over 700 deaths due to a failing power grid in the midst of a pandemic, it looks like seriously signing the death warrants of little kids.

I mean, my mind never imagined that this is where we would be. I don't know if y'all believed in that kind of world, but I never did. When the pandemic first happened, there was definitely a lack of leadership as it relates to Trump himself. And I was very proud in Texas because my county judge is Clay Jenkins, and Clay Jenkins was our leader in the pandemic. Clay began to lead because Abbott did nothing. Right behind Clay was Lena Hidalgo down in Harris County. She began to lead as well. And then our governor decided to get in. And honestly, back then, I know people have short memories, especially when it comes to politics.

But just at the beginning of the pandemic, he actually was for he was OK with the mask mandates. He was OK with the mandatory shutdowns. He was OK with those things. And honestly, we started to flatten the curve. We started to roll out vaccines to people. We started to do so many things. And then we were following CDC guidelines. And all of a sudden, it's time for reelection. And it's like, what's polling really well with the far right is to just be as crazy as crazy can be and claim that it's freedom. And I'm thinking to myself this is so

odd you know we've got all these old white men that are telling us what freedom looks like and then you've got these black and brown people that are telling you hey you're invoking um you know laws that will will definitely infringe upon the freedoms of black and brown people who historic historically have had those rights infringed upon this is real freedom and you're like no no no no no no no we we don't hear you right like we're ignoring you it's it's it's a crazy world that i'm living in um i just hope that while people normally don't pay attention to like gubernatorial races like people are really usually like uh you know, that's a sleeper. We care about presidential races.

I just can't imagine how people will snooze on this. The question is, what is the answer for Greg Abbott, right? There is no Democrat that has come out as running for governor in the state of Texas, where we have arguably one of the craziest governors up for reelection right now. So we've got a lot of hurdles that we're going to have to get over. But I hope that people's humanity will step in and it will somehow outrank the partisanship. And they will say, you know what? COVID didn't attack because someone was a Democrat or because they were white or they were Black or they were Hispanic or they were Asian or they were Republican or independent.

COVID doesn't care about your race. COVID doesn't care about your political affiliation. And right now, I don't know what could be more important than trying to make sure that we can literally live to see another day and have some of these fights. So I think that it's time for people to put partisan politics to the side and just kind of look for what makes good common sense. And anything but Abbott at this point makes good common sense. Yeah, I always growing up viewed voting as, you know, you have the Republicans who I think a lot of things I vehemently disagree with. And then you have the Democrats who my views align with. I never thought about it as you vote for the Democrats if you want to live and you vote for the Republicans if you are OK with people dying and killing people, especially from the party that calls themselves the pro-life party.

Just one of the things that Stacey Abrams had said when she was registering voters in Georgia that I thought was very powerful is she said, Georgia, people have this preconceived notion that Georgia is a red state, but in fact, it's a voter suppressed state. And I think she proved that that was true in her efforts in Georgia and the fact that we now have two senators from Georgia, that Joe Biden won Georgia. Now, what's taking Texas so long? How do we how do we dig Texas out of this hole? Because it seems like every election, we are so close. We are on the cusp of electing strong Democratic leaders at the state level. In your opinion, do you share Stacey Abrams' belief is in Georgia and Texas? Do you think that is Texas a red state? Is it just a voter

suppressed state? I absolutely believe that it's a combination of voter apathy as well as voter suppression. You can look at a number of articles that talk about that ranks kind of like the difficulty of voting by the states in Texas is always dead last. We are the most difficult state to vote in because we won't do simple things, right? Especially with the amount of growth that we've seen. You would think that, okay, well, when it comes to getting registered to vote that would be easy it's not like it's not even easy to get registered because um while we trust our money to be online while we trust our education to be online while we trust everything else to be online texas has refused to do online voter registration now texas just got slapped on the hand for being bad,

because that's just what Texas loves to do, especially when it comes to voting, as it relates to online voter registration when you're renewing your driver's license. So they were found to be in violation of federal law. That decision came down in August of 2020. By September of 2020, they had to implement this kind of online voter registration that is only available if you are renewing your license, which in the state of Texas, we only do it like once every six years or so. Between September and the beginning of August, we had a million new people registered to vote just from renewing their licenses. That tells you kind of what's going on. And in this law, one of the things that they don't really talk about is that it's adding more criminal penalties for deputy voter registrars, which they are always volunteers. Right. So I'm a deputy voter registrar. And basically, if you make a mistake, then you may go to prison. So like, they want to put a chilling effect on those that are even trying to get people registered to vote and make

it kind of scary and say, never mind, I don't want to do it. Because they know that when we participate, they lose. And so what we saw was this last time, there was a spread of between five and six points. That was the difference between Biden and Trump this last time. That is almost nothing. When we talk about the fact that there were 11 million voters in the state of Texas this go round, that was more than we've had. And I think they said over 20 years. But Texas is a state of 30 million people. So still 11 million isn't really that big a number, right? You know, we absolutely have to get involved, but I can tell you one thing. Coming in as a freshman, I kept thinking, you guys aren't doing anything in Austin. Like, what are you doing? No one talks about what you're doing. No one knows who you guys are.

I feel like these stupid laws that I always have to get on my update from a CLE, they don't make sense. I'm like, maybe it's because like you guys just don't know what you're doing. I need to go down to Austin. I need to wreck shop. I need to make sure that people are like making laws that make sense. Right. I can tell you one thing, regardless of the fact that today is going to be just a gloomy day for so many because this bill is going to pass like hands down it's going to pass out the house um we really have excited i think people that really just didn't even know if there were other democrats in the state right um just seeing that there's a fight sometimes you got to give people a reason to want to vote for you and that's what i guess

i'm like why would they even care about voting for y'all? Y'all just don't sit here and just get steamrolled, right? Like you got to give people a reason to want to, but like they got to say, oh yeah, I got to go vote for my fighter Jasmine. She's going to make sure that, you know, she tells it like it is like you guys got to stand up. You can't sit here and say, well, this is how it is because we're in the minority. We just sit here. No, we got to fight. You see what the Republicans are doing. They don't care if they're in the minority we just sit here no we gotta fight you see what the republicans are doing they don't care if they're in the majority of the minority they are going to fight you tooth and nail on stuff that makes sense why is it that they have the majority on the supreme court because that's what they do they are they are cutthroat they are

ruthless and they are ruthless for like bad things right they're ruthless for things like let's kill the kiddos that are trying to yeah it's like it's like marvel movie super villains like that's what we're actually dealing with like you never thought like they could be that evil why representative crockett i think you're you're a hero in my eyes and i think you are responsible for mobilizing so many voters and for creating so much enthusiasm in Texas. But one of the fears that and one of the questions we get often from our followers is, well, if they're passing these bills, how can we out organize it? How do you out organize voter suppression? And so do you have any answers? Is there any is there any glimmer of hope of optimism of how we we could, you know, come back?

There's definitely I don't believe in out-organizing voter suppression. I think that we have to focus on voter apathy, right? I think that because it's a combination of the two. So I think that we have to focus on the voter apathy and get those that have been apathetic and get them involved and increase their turnout so that we can go ahead and get the proper people in place so that we can undo the voter suppression. Obviously, we've got to, you know, continue to put pressure on the federal level. I was happy to see that our president said something about H.R. 1 and H.R. 4 after H.R. 4 passed the House. And so I'm hoping that, you know, maybe he was

quiet because he really wanted infrastructure, which for me, I was like the infrastructure of our democracy, like matters more than anything else because we don't get anything else without that. But now that we've kind of moved past infrastructure to some level, hopefully we can now focus on H.R.1 and H.R.4 as a package and hopefully Manchin and Sinema see what they need to see in that there is no bipartisanship. It was very sad to see that, you know, the vote was straight down party lines in the U.S. House. That was one of the things I was looking for. That to me signals that whoever their leader is right now is saying, hey, no, we don't vote for this. Even though historically the Voting Rights Act was reauthorized over and over and over in a very bipartisan way. We are actually turning back the hands of time at this point. We're saying that, wait a minute, you know, I feel like it's just the white flight almost, right? Like it's like, oh shoot, there's too many of them, right? Like,

stop it, too much color going on, you know, like this whole representative government thing may become a reality. Right. When we look at the numbers from the census, when you look at the state of Texas and the fact that we grew in the last 10 years, 95 percent of our growth was people of color. I know for a fact that they're going to try to make those two new seats go to all white male Republicans, which doesn't make sense. Right. Like 95 percent of the growth, even if it's a Republican, that's fine. But I mean, how can you say is representative of government when we got two new seats because it was 95% people of color. They're not even going to try. I already know they're just going to draw some skinny little stupid line to try to make it work for them. We've all seen what Dan Crenshaw's district looks like and, uh, you know, other things like, I mean, some of these districts are insane. It's so bad. And it's one reason

they're really trying to push forward because, you know, John Lewis will give us things as it relates to redistricting. Right. And that was part of my deal. I was like, dude, OK, maybe you don't care about voting rights. Maybe you don't care about us. But you don't care about us but do you care about yourself because you're about to get cut up like like guys like they are going to steal the majority like we're not promoting they're you know i was listening to the debate on hr4 and they're like this is a power grab i was like who is where am i is this a twilight like the power you guys like we're trying to increase access and you're saying we're doing a power grab. Like it doesn't say all new Democratic voters only. It says all new voters.

It's all gaslighting, right? It's everything that they're accusing Democrats of is what they're guilty of. And we've seen that time and time again on every single issue where they start even, you know, going back to COVID. They'll go masks and vaccines are actually anti-science. Like they'll just throw everything and flip it on its head. And you're like, what are you talking about? Someone who I think has gotten off way too easy in this interview that I want to bring up and representative Crockett, I want to understand your point of view on this. So you guys had a awful natural disaster that happened in your state. And a lot

of people lost their lives, their homes, their livelihood because of it. Now, it likely could have been avoidable with the whole power grid situation that you guys have going down there, but that's neither here nor there. The first thing that Senator Ted Cruz decided to do was pack up his family and go fly to Cancun and get away from the state. Now, what does that say? Except for the dog, not the dog. Yeah, leave the dog at home and let's get out of the state. Let's leave all my constituents. Can you even imagine that mindset of that lack of leadership? And what does that say about him as a leader? I think using the word leader, it's being way too, uh, generous. Um, it's,

you know, it, you know, for them, leadership is is the absence of right. That's what they do. And sadly enough, you know, when I look at the Republican Party, I'm like, the only way that you survive is that you look out for the top, you know, one percenters. Right. And then you do all this other stupid shit to like just make it to where it's like, oh, I i gotta bring on some other people because the top one percenters that's not enough to get me into office so like they stoke fears and conspiracies and all this other kind of stuff like things that people will grab on you know they're sound they're the kings of soundbites right you know oh we're pro-life unless you're actually here living or trying to live or whatever because then we're're going to kill you, right? Like, oh, no mask, no vaccine. Like, oh, like, why?

Because of freedom. Like, I want the freedom to live, guys. Like, I mean, it's just insane. And you're right. He left. He left when his constituents needed him the most. And then you've got AOC, who came to where the drama was and tried to help out Texans.

That's what leadership looks like. This wasn't affecting her district specifically, wasn't even affecting her state specifically. But she understands that it's bigger than that, that we're all in this together. And she cares about more than just kind of her little neck of the woods versus Ted Cruz, who doesn't even care about that. I was in a similar situation. I was actually in Austin when the storm hit. And luckily, I didn't lose power. I think my Internet went out for a while. So no Netflix and chill for a second. I didn't have any issues with with any heat or anything like that. And so I was be protected. This was just me guessing. And it was right. Once we were briefed, I was informed of kind of what we call critical loads.

And so, you know, your jails can't let them go down. Right. So jails, our firehouses, our hospitals, critical loads. So I got her to a hospital, I mean, to a hotel room that never, ever failed. But I was getting these calls and here it is, this is my first disaster. I mean, cause I was sworn in in January and in February, here we are in the storm. And I'm like, well, where's the water? You know, because I'm getting these calls because people are saying that, they cut the water off because there were all these leaks everywhere. Right. And so like, I've got elderly people in some of like my senior homes and I'm like, oh, this is a problem. So I'm like, hey, emergency management people, where's the water? How do I get that? And they were like, oh, you don't get it. I'm like, what do you mean? And they were like, no, no, no, your local elected officials. I was like, well, what am I, chopped liver? Like, it was so frustrating. And I was like, I get why people hate government and think it's so inefficient because TDEM is what they call it. And it's our emergency management group. And that's a state thing. But for whatever reason, I got no say. So I got,

I didn't get to direct anything or anything. I was just there. And so I remember calling one of my corporate residents and I said, hey, do you have water? And he goes, representative, we distribute beer. And I was like, I know. But do you have water? And he was like, OK, I'll make a call. And so he calls me back because they literally are the six largest beer distributors in the country. So I'm like, y'all got some water somewhere. That was like my thought, right? And so he called me back and he goes, so yeah, we've got two pallets of water.

I'm like, duh, you've got employees, you got water. So that was like my thought, right? And he goes, you can have them. And I was like, perfect. He was like my thought right and he goes you can have them and I was like perfect he was like where do I get them delivered and so instead of like tapping into the resources that are state resources that for whatever reason it was like this whole like lag I'm like people could be dead by then right like I was able to contact one of my corporate residents like hey we need water in the district help me and. And he did. And he got those

pallets out immediately. And so I was also coordinating with just other kind of grassroots organizations that were getting water flown in, all kinds of stuff. So to me, leadership really is just evident when you see that a person actually cares about people. And it wasn't really my title that, I mean, I didn't have to be the state rep to really do the things that I did because sadly enough, the one thing I thought I had access to, I didn't. But I care.

I care about people living. I care about people having access to what they need. And you shouldn't call your elected representatives on any level. And they say, well, that's not my territory. That's not my job. Call somebody else, right? Like not in the middle of a disaster. So I just needed to kind of be a problem solver. And I think that that's really the definition of what real leadership looks like is they look to solve problems. You compare that, of course, to Cancun Cruz, who literally, while you're trying to solve problems,

others from out of state are trying to solve problems. His response to an emergency is, all right, vacation time. Let's put on the Hawaiian shirts and pack our stuff and go to Cancun. I mean, that's just so symbolic of who he is, who Greg Abbott is, and all these just phony GQP politicians in your state. Yeah, absolutely.

Well, keep fighting, Representative Crockett. We appreciate you sharing your insights with us on today's Midas Touch podcast. Let you go and follow more of the debate. It is going to be a tough day, no doubt, but we appreciate you fighting and continue to fight for voters' rights. And we hope you'll come back and join us again in the future. Absolutely. Thank you so much, guys. We will be right back after these messages. No, that's not America. Wendy's most important deal of the day has a fresh lineup.

Pick any two breakfast items for $4. New four-piece French toast sticks, bacon or sausage wrap, biscuit or English muffin sandwiches, small hot coffee, and more. Limited time only at participating Wendy's Taxes Extra. Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast. It's a great episode. It was so great to have Katie Hill on. It's great to have Jasmine Crockett on. Representative Crockett, I have no doubt, is going to have a superstar career in the Democratic Party. I like that she just, yes, she speaks like a person, you know, it's not like, it's not like a robotic politician, which is what I loved the most. Such a breath of fresh air, Ben.

Total breath of fresh air. Another breath of fresh air are some legal developments. I think on Legal Laugh, you'd go, updates! We got updates! We got lots and lots of updates. So, update number one, we all recall a few weeks or months back, there was the hearing about whether or not the district court in Michigan would issue sanctions against Sidney Powell, against Lin Wood, and a bunch of the other attorneys who brought the frivolous election fraud cases. These were complete bullshit cases that were brought across the country, but one of them was brought in the district court in Michigan. Remember, Lin Wood's argument was that his name, like, miraculously appeared on the the court documents and he didn't even know how his name got there. That's how chicken shit his argument was. But Sidney Powell, Lin Wood and others have been sanctioned.

There will be a determination regarding the monetary value of that sanction. The defendants in this case, the city and the municipalities, have been invited to submit all of the damages they've been caused by having to respond to this frivolous complaint. So expect them to be hit with a monetary penalty of hundreds of thousands of dollars and potentially more. And the district court referred them to the state bar for suspension or let's go. And their legal licenses will be revoked. So that's the update on sanction. I can't tell more than that. You'll have to tune in to legal analysis Sunday.

Legal F on its new channel. Legal F by Midas Touch. Make sure you go and subscribe right now and ben jordy this is further evidence that literally everything trump touches dies everything trump touches turns to shit there is no escaping it if you attach yourself to this con man you will be fucked in the end and just look through the let's look at the history here i mean aside from everybody across decades and decades, but let's look at recent history with Rudy Giuliani, who's now been debased to begging for money on Cameo for his legal defense because he's been suspended for practicing law.

Did you see the video of him shaving in the airport? Yeah. A friend of the show, Mike Rappaport, posted a video. Was it in an airport or was it just in a restaurant? It was in the restaurant in the airport where he was shaving with an was it an electric razor or was it even just an electric razor so all of his disgusting hairs were falling on the restaurant like who literally does that this is truly like sick, like weird, disgusting stuff. And you have Mike Lindell, who is now going broke because of all this stuff. And he also like a like one of these, you know, fraudulent preachers begging for money. Please donate. Think about all I did for you. Please chip in here, pitch in and help fight the man because we're the Mike Lindell Legal Defense Fund and we're

going to still take back power. Don't you worry. I mean, if you're going to give Mike Lindell your hard earned money for this guy to, he's not even going to use the money to try to get Trump back in power because that's not a thing. But if you're going to give him your money at this point, you almost deserve to be conned. And then we have Sidney Powell, Lin Wood, who have totally just debased themselves, ruined their careers, now are being hit with lots of fines, will likely be suspended or disbarred.

And Ben will get into that, as he said, on Legal AF. But there's no escaping this. And these are unethical, crooked, criminal people who, under the Trump orbit, felt that they could have a second act where incompetence and illegality and being disgusting is rewarded. And so a lot of these people had already been teetering on the brink of utter disaster and clung on to their strongman dictator in hopes of being uplifted and reinventing themselves in the form of the fascists who they truly were. Other legal update number two, and I'm going to give you a quick legal update number three bonus, but legal update two is that a group of updates, we got updates,

a group of seven Capitol Police officers filed a lawsuit accusing Trump and nearly 20 members of various far- various far right extremist groups and political organizations of the for their injuries in connection with January 6th. We know a lot of these other lawsuits are moving through the court system. Lots of people, a lot of the defendants in these cases have tried to make arguments that they're somehow immune and should not be subject to the lawsuits, but these lawsuits are proceeding. Let's follow what's going on here, but this was, I think according to Edward Casper, a lawyer who's leading

the suit for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, says, quote, this is probably the most comprehensive account of January 6th in terms of civil cases. It spans from the former president to militants around him to his campaign supporters. And just looking at that quote where he talks about the militants around him, that's what it is. It's a terrorist organization that surrounds the former terrorist in chief, Donald Trump. And my final legal update, which is kind of just so preposterous. I don't know if you saw this leaked message between Bill Barr and a colleague of his about the news.

It was some of the news surrounding Bill Barr's statements around the period of time where they were suppressing peaceful protests and they were trying to use the military to declare basically martial law in late May. And Bill Barr's main concern? Retweets. Thirsty. Retweets. We got retweets. Bill Barr was concerned about, I mean, just think about how crazy this is. You are the Attorney General.

You lead the Department of Justice. You are the number one law enforcement officer in the United States of America. that is killing Americans every single day. His concern was, quote, hoping for more retweets. And as we've always said on Minus Touch, this GQP combines fascism with stupidity in ways that are completely unprecedented. And here they are, hoping for more retweets. I think that could be at their eulogy. At the end of the day, he just hoped for some more retweets at the end of the day. And that's why, Ben, bringing it back to what we were speaking about with Afghanistan and the tragedy that is unfolding there as we speak. I am happy that we now have a president who is not taking to Twitter to make

threats and say crazy things to make this problem worse, but he is in the situation room. He's out there talking to the American people, and it's comforting to have somebody who's actually going there and doing the job and doing the hard work done. Our thoughts and condolences are with everybody impacted in Afghanistan right now, with our brave men and women in the armed forces who are doing everything to get people out of harm's way. There is a glimmer of good news here, and that's by the weekend, we're looking at, we should probably have around 150,000 people evacuated from Afghanistan in what is the biggest air evacuation in the history. And so I commend these brave men and women in the armed forces for their incredible work

on the ground. And my prayers are with them. I'm thinking of them and sending them my strength. And we'll be monitoring all that and be bringing you the latest news on everything that's going on there. We appreciate your support. As always, some incredible guests on today's Midas Touch podcast. We got some great guests coming up in the future episodes. Excited to share those great guests with you.

We appreciate your support. As always, thank you for making the Midas Touch podcast and our other podcasts on our network from Kremlin File to Mya Culpa to Legal AF to Zoomed In, some of the top podcasts in the United States and the world. We need to stick together now more than ever to spread the message of democracy. Until next time, Ben, Brett, and Jordy saying thank you for your support. Shout out to the Midas Mighty!