The MeidasTouch Podcast - The Fight for Democracy with U.S. Senate Candidate Malcolm Kenyatta

Episode Date: August 6, 2021

On today’s episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, the brothers sit down with current Pennsylvania state representative and U.S. Senate hopeful, Malcolm Kenyatta. During the interview, Rep. Kenyatta dis...cusses voting rights, a centerpiece of his campaign and his 8-point democracy plan. Additionally, the team talks through the performative politics that are being played by the GQP’s leaders. The episode is rounded out by a thoughtful discussion around red-state governors who are failing their constituents at every turn, as well as Tucker Carlson’s utterly head scratching trip to Hungary. If you enjoy today’s episode, please be sure to rate, review and subscribe. As always, thank YOU for listening! Follow Malcolm Kenyatta on Twitter here.  Shop Grove Collaborative here.  Get Meidas Merch here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:11 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. What's up Midas Mighty and welcome to the Midas Touch podcast. Ben Micellis joined by my brothers Brett Micellis and Jordy Micellis. We have a great episode for you today. As always, we have Representative Malcolm Kenyatta of Pennsylvania, who serves as a state representative representing the 181st District. Representative Kenyatta, you may know, is running for United States Senate. We're going to talk to him about his Senate run. We also want to talk to Malcolm Kenyatta specifically about voting rights. Oh, you know, Pennsylvania is an interesting
Starting point is 00:02:13 state. You have a Democratic governor over there. You have their General Assembly, which has a House of Representatives and a state Senate, which is narrowly controlled by GQP. And oh, do I mean GQP. And there are a ton of efforts of voter suppression and voter suppression bills within those two branches of the General Assembly. And so we want to speak to Malcolm Kenyatta about his efforts to fight back against that, to bring the vote to all voters and his Senate run. But hey, I want to say this. I got to see Brett and Jordy in person. That's the first time together in over two years yesterday. Two years, two years plus, man. It was great to see you. Pretty exciting stuff. And not only did it take two years
Starting point is 00:03:07 for us to all see each other in the same room, it seemingly took two years for Ben to arrive at the house and to see us yesterday because Ben was incredible. If you want to wonder, I'm sure you're, you know, I see people wondering now,
Starting point is 00:03:19 I thought you guys were all together. Why aren't you recording the podcast together? Well, let me tell you a little something about Ben. Ben is good at a lot of things. Great at a lot of things. Like excellent, like a genius, like high level, incredibly intelligent. But being on time to things is not one of his strengths. So yesterday we were recording something for another project we're working on, which you'll find out down the line. And Ben was supposed to be here at what time, Jordy? 1130, I believe it was? He was supposed to be there at 11.
Starting point is 00:03:53 11 o'clock. 11 on the dot. 11 a.m. So we get a text from Ben at 11 a.m. saying, traffic is really bad right now. I'll be there at 1230. Now it's not even possible with like the world's worst traffic, unless he was just leaving at that moment or was planning on leaving in like a half hour from then to get there. I get, you could use LA traffic as a thing. That's not a, not, not a thing, Ben, were you just starting to leave? Let's get to the bottom of this,
Starting point is 00:04:21 but were you just, yes or no? Yes or no? Yes or no? When you said that text starting to leave. Let's get to the bottom of this. Yes or no. Yes or no. Yes or no. When you said that text starting to leave, did you just leave? Yeah. Or had you even left the house yet? Yes. Yes. You just started to leave. Yes. I had just started to leave. I had left the house. Let me ask you open the door. Let me ask you this question. You're saying it is improbable if I left at 11 for me to say traffic is bad. I'll get there 1230 the earliest. Is that what you're saying? Is it right? Don't even answer that, Ben.
Starting point is 00:04:52 Why would you leave at 11? If you knew that we were shooting, you're supposed to get there at 11. We were going to start at 11. But Brett, keep going now. Keep going. So yeah, Ben tried to make a point that was just totally irrelevant. So I was supposed to arrive at 11, not, not depart at 11. So Ben apparently departs at 11, 11 turns to 12, 12 turns to 1230. We're like, where has Ben like, we're like been waiting on
Starting point is 00:05:15 him now. Not the full true story because I had called you and said, Hey, around 1030, I said, Hey, I called Jordy. I said, I'm running a little late. I'm going to be leaving soon. I had a very hectic morning. I did, I'm running a little late. I'm going to be leaving soon. I had a very hectic morning. I did say that. I wasn't like out of the blue. So this is actually what happened. So it's around 1215 now.
Starting point is 00:05:34 And Brett and I are looking at each other like, what's going on, man? Where is he? And Brett and Ben are texting, I think, back and forth. And Ben sends a text in the brother chat saying, hey, you know, still run a little bit behind. Just hang tight. I'll be there soon. Brett, Brett, Brett has a short fuse for certain things. This was one of them. So I saw Brett getting visibly upset. There was an angry phone call exchange between Brett and Ben that lasted all of 10 seconds. And then what tends to happen in these situations that I love is Ben then calls me,
Starting point is 00:06:03 right? Because I'm sort of like the arbiter between the two brothers. Like when things get really heated, I know how to calm Brett down and same vice versa. And Brett's like, and Ben's like, hey man, I'm really sorry. Like I'll be there as soon as I can. I'm really hustling to get there.
Starting point is 00:06:15 And so then I spend the rest of the 15 minutes then waiting for Ben, just calming Brett down, trying to keep his blood pressure down. 1230 hits and Ben goes here. I get a text from Ben here. And there was one problem. He wasn't here. And I had a big feeling that he was not here. So I walked out of my home. I looked around, I walked down the block. Maybe he's at the wrong house. I don't know. We'll see. And I said, Ben, where's here? Where are you right now?
Starting point is 00:06:43 And it turned out that Ben went to the entirely wrong house in a different city. He went to our dad's house, not my house. For some reason, he didn't read the text as to where we were going to be. And so then it took Ben another 40 minutes to then get to us after that, to which he complained that he only had an hour because he had a legal case. Well, that's the cherry on top. Ben walks in. He's like, Hey guys, I only have 15 minutes. I have stuff to do today. I have a legal thing. And we're like, Ben, we didn't make you late, buddy. You came late on your own. You went to the wrong place. You left at the time we were
Starting point is 00:07:17 supposed to start shooting. I mean, how is this in any way our fault? But that's the, that's a classic. And then I, and then and then I go in. And before we start, I need a I need a cup of tea. Yeah, you're like the biggest diva. You're like, I need my M&Ms sorted by color. I need a cup of tea, black tea only. All right. All right. All right. But we got done what we had to get done. We got to see each other. It was incredible. We're going to see each other again soon. I was ordered to be at a court for one of my cases in the next 24 hours.
Starting point is 00:07:49 Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to see Jordy and Brett again until this weekend. That is when the Brother Olympics will take place. There will be tennis. There will be trivia. There will be basketball. There will be sprinting on the beach. There will be basketball. There will be sprinting on the beach. There will be a lot of that.
Starting point is 00:08:05 There will be lots of activities. We should relay. We'll do relay races and everything you could imagine. Want to announce another very exciting Midas announcement. Yesterday, we released a new Midas media network original called Kremlin File, which is the definitive podcast on the Russia-Trump connection. It will track and follow the rise of authoritarianism with the rise of Putin in Russia and the creeping authoritarianism across the world, but also provide prescriptive remedies about what democratic societies can do to champion pro-democracy and combat the propaganda machines of authoritarians across the world.
Starting point is 00:08:54 I'm excited to work with Bunker Crew on this. We've got some incredible hosts. Brett, you want to talk more about this podcast? Yeah. First off, I want to tell everybody right now to go and subscribe to the Kremlin File podcast. It's a separate podcast from the Midas Touch podcast feed. So whatever podcast app you use, just go to your search and search for Kremlin File.
Starting point is 00:09:14 You will see the trailer and episode one there waiting for you. Make sure you subscribe because that's where all the episodes are going to be. This podcast, it's hosted by renowned researcher, Ogil Outman, political activist, Monique Camara. It is a riveting journey through the rise of Putin. And I think what really struck me about episode one are just the uncanny resemblances between what happened when Putin was instated in Russia in comparison to what's happening in America right now with the Republican Party. The gaslighting, the lies, the push for an authoritarian government, it all rings far too true for what's happening in America today. And that's why I think this piece is more important now than it's ever been before. And of course, it ties together everything
Starting point is 00:10:06 with how Trump has been an asset of Russia for decades and decades and decades. And the people we're working on this project on also have done some of the most incredible work on the planet. I mean, these producers produced the documentary at Bunker Crew. They produced the documentary Active Measures, which I'm sure a lot of you guys have Crew. They produce the documentary Active Measures, which I'm sure a lot of you guys have seen. They produced the recent QAnon documentary that was out there that everybody was talking about. So if you really want to get to the bottom of Trump, Putin, of Putin's Russia, of the rise of authoritarianism in Europe and what it means for America, you got to listen to Kremlin File and just give it the first episode. I promise you will be hooked, hooked, hooked.
Starting point is 00:10:48 I'm looking in the comments now, seeing if anybody's already listened to it and seeing what they thought about it. So if you've seen it, share your thoughts about the podcast. It's just a really well done podcast. That's Kremlin File. Go and subscribe to the Kremlin File channel. Now, Andrew Cuomo, I want to address this from the outset. Leticia James, New York State Attorney General, issued the independent investigation findings, which indeed found that Governor Cuomo engaged in a pattern and practice of sexual harassment and that he engaged in serious wrongdoing. Andrew Cuomo denied it. His defense was bizarre, to say the least, by showing photos of people in tragic situations who hugged other people. That was the weirdest defense I've ever seen. I mean,
Starting point is 00:11:45 have you ever seen a more bizarre response to something like this than posting a packet of pictures of you hugging people and other people hugging people? Look, it's me hugging my mother. Look, it's Joe Biden hugging Hillary Clinton. Look, it's Barack Obama with his arm around Michelle. Like, dude, that's not what is happening here. And I don't know how you could do that and not just cringe and be like, yeah, this is not the best look. And here's my thing too with him. It's like, so I was in New York, obviously when the pandemic first started and look, you could respect the fact that he went on TV every single day and gave updates to New Yorkers and, you know, actually the whole United States. I think his press
Starting point is 00:12:23 conferences were nationally televised at that point. You could respect that part about him. I think he did a good job doing that. But what you can't respect is what's going on right now. The accusations made against them, the definitive findings made against them from Letitia James. And frankly, he's got to resign. And Jordy, the impeachment probe is taking place right now amongst the lawmakers within your home state of New York. They've given Governor Cuomo until an August 13 deadline to submit his own evidence regarding their impeachment inquiry. of the New York Democratic delegation from the congressional level to the state representative level to former leaders, you know, to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi at the national level. The Democratic leadership has called for Andrew Cuomo to resign. But Brett, in terms of have I ever seen a more bizarre response than Governor Cuomo's, the answer is yes. And it's in this context,
Starting point is 00:13:26 and it's also in broader contexts. In this context, look at Congresswoman Elise Stefanik's response. And to me, this is the height of hypocrisy. She issued a statement calling for the arrest of Governor Cuomo, saying no one is above the law and today justice must be served. It goes on to say, I was the first federal official to publicly call for an independent investigation into Governor Cuomo's sexual harassment, abuse, and assault. The independent investigation led by the attorney general's office confirms Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed and assaulted multiple women. And it goes on and to applaud the brave women who deserve swift and definitive justice. And I say this response is bizarre, to say the least, because she doesn't believe any of these things in reality.
Starting point is 00:14:22 I mean, she supports Donald Trump. And the GQP consistently stands behind sexual predators and pedophiles. Their leadership in Congress is run by sexual predators and pedophiles. People like Elise Stefanik stand shoulder to shoulder with people like Matt Gates and his ilk. That is who the GQP is. And so for Elise Stefanik and for all of these GQP members out there who claim and feign righteous indignation over Andrew Cuomo, they have people within their party's leadership who they don't call for their resignation, who they hoist up as the model citizens for Republicans who have rape allegations, allegations of disgusting pedophilia around them. And that's who these people hold up as the leaders of their party and who they supported
Starting point is 00:15:24 as the president of the United States and Donald Trump. I made this joke the other day, but it's funny because it's true. There's a lot of truth behind it. I joked around saying, oh, this must mean we should probably put Andrew Cuomo on the Supreme Court now, huh? We should probably elect Andrew Cuomo president now, huh? Because if we were the Republicans, that's exactly what we would do. They put these people in places of leadership to them. If a Republican did this,
Starting point is 00:15:51 this is good behavior for them. This is behavior that should be mimicked. This is behavior that should be rewarded. It's locker room talk to them. It's locker room talk. This is what guys do. It's just what Kavanaugh does with his buddy squee when they pound a couple of beers at the frat house. Tim and squee, bro. They're just chilling at the frat house, just hanging with some girls. What's wrong with that? You're going to really look into his past. Oh, Matt Gates. Oh, really? Oh, 17. That's not really all that young. What is that? The fake news media. These are the things we hear nonstop from the right. So I don't want to hear a single damn word from them about Andrew Cuomo here because they are so incredibly intellectually dishonest. But I also want to give a round of applause to Democrats out there
Starting point is 00:16:39 who have called out Cuomo's behavior here and called it out swiftly and called it out with a lot of passion because Cuomo has done a lot of good, Jordi, like you said. I mean, Cuomo was a leader through this pandemic process when America was rudderless, when America was looking for somebody to guide us through this pandemic. And he has done so much good. And he is also incredibly popular in New York. Democrats, if they were the Republicans, they would try to keep this guy in office at all costs. But they know the difference between right and wrong. And I hope that that could be a model for our politics going forward. But with these Republicans, that's just not going to happen. A Republican investigation into this, if you had a Republican state AG, they would say that they were investigating and either there would be no actual investigation taking place or they would stop the credible allegations from even being reported and they would not listen to it. Just look and Brett gave the example of Kavanaugh. What we know
Starting point is 00:17:45 about the investigation into Kavanaugh is that the GQP members basically instructed the FBI not to accept the credible allegations and not to allow those allegations to see the light of day. And so what the GQP does is doesn't even let these investigations take place. They find their results in these investigations would say it's inconclusive and that there was, you know, multiple points of view respect and no definitive agreement could be reached. And they would basically allow, in this case, the Republican governor to basically say the investigation proved to be inconclusive and see I should stay on. And that's not what the Democrats do. It's not a hypothetical situation. I mean, it's a this is a different scenario. But look at what Bill Barr did with the Mueller report. Look at how he released his own report to counter the Mueller report and didn't allow the Mueller report to be released for weeks. He was a bill bar did with the DOJ, with the credible allegations of defamation against Donald Trump.
Starting point is 00:18:46 And they intervene and stepped in and said, hey, the DOJ is going to be representing Jean Carroll. Now, if the Republican Party had any sense of decency or dignity, they would be careful about what they're saying right now about Tish James, because they are oh, they are backing Tish James. Every single word that Tish James says, they are all for it. 150%. Tish James said this, the investigation has said this about Cuomo. Does she call herself Tish James? She does. We need to pursue this to the fullest extent of the law. Now, what I think this does though, politically speaking, if we just back up for a second, is this gives a lot of legitimacy to Tish James as a nonpartisan arbiter of the law. So when Tish James is pursuing a case, she will not pursue it based on whether they have a D
Starting point is 00:19:41 before their name or an R before their name, but based on the facts of the law. And when Tish James comes around and she prosecutes Donald Trump, I hope that these same Republicans who are lauding her right now understand that, no, this is not a politically motivated attack. This is somebody who has broken the law, violated the law and must be punished for their crimes. And I think that's what's to come with Trump. It's a great point, Brett. And you could be sure that, well, I was going to say we might as touch other organizations. We're, of course, going to have the screenshots of all these people praising and applauding Tish James to compare it to when they all basically say that Tish James
Starting point is 00:20:26 is on a political witch hunt and that she's a Democratic operative. Like, you know, that's what's going to come as the Trump investigation speeds up and gets more serious. But there is no intellectual consistency with this GQP at the end of the day. They really don't care because they realize at the end of the day, their voters just don't give a shit. All their voters care about are, are you owning the libs in a given day? And in this case, owning the libs means going after Andrew Cuomo. But owning the libs tomorrow will mean going after Tish James and owning the libs today for these crazy GQP members also means being pro insurrection. It means being against vaccine because as long as the libs are for something, even if it's backed by the science
Starting point is 00:21:19 for GQP members, they're against it. A Quinnipiac poll shows that well these are the numbers that are consistently out there 63 of americans support the january 6th select committee and 32 oppose the select committee it's crazy about that it's crazy that that always comes up we say it all the time in the show, but we mean it. There's that 30, 32% of the country that's just unsalvageable at this point. And we have to just be not okay with it, but we have to understand that. And then we have to motivate that 70% of folks that are reasonable. And I'll tell you, people might say, there's got to be some way to break through to the 30%. These people are fucking killing themselves rather than listening to
Starting point is 00:22:05 Democrats. They are literally killing themselves and willfully taking their lives by refusing to listen to Democrats on basic things like wear a damn mask and take a vaccine, a life-saving vaccine. If you can't convince somebody to change with the fear of death, then I don't think there's any helping these people. I mean, I just saw the report of that Texas State Republican executive committee member who died of COVID after telling everyone on Twitter, you're an enemy to the free people. You are the enemy of the state. Just criticizing doctors. I think he had like a rap song that he released filled with COVID disinformation. But guess what, bro? You're not saying any words anymore. You're dead.
Starting point is 00:22:49 You're dead now. You're not going to be doing any more raps to own the libs. There's no owning the libs from the grave. Sorry. Sorry. I'll say this. The GQP leadership fancies themselves like Al-Qaeda martyrs for stupidity. They view themselves as suicide bombers, but in the name of not wearing masks in public settings. Just think about the level of stupidity around that. Their biggest issue of civil rights is not taking a vaccine that's going to save the lives of them and their family. And they think about themselves as civil rights
Starting point is 00:23:35 leaders. When you look in the mirror, you are not just Al Qaeda. You are the dumbest version of Al Qaeda that exists. You stupid GQP fucks. And that's the thing. You hinted at a great point, too. It's not just them. Like if they want to become, you know, suicide, whatever, like fine, whatever, die. We don't care about you.
Starting point is 00:24:04 But like for you to not have any self-awareness to protect your own family and to keep them safe and just to not care, that level of disrespect for just the people around you, who you say that you love, that's what you want to do? This is the hill that you want to die on? Literally? Literally. The problem is, Jordy, is that they've taken mask wearing and getting the vaccine and everything that we've been speaking about so far in this episode, they view it as a loyalty test in their mind, which is a very, that's a key proponent of an authoritarian kind of style of leadership, where if you step out of the box of what we are telling you to do, then you don't support anything that we do. Your entire identity revolves around you obeying what we say. And so if we tell you
Starting point is 00:24:54 that wearing a mask is unpatriotic, if we tell you that you should not get the vaccine and you do it, you have betrayed us. You have betrayed your family. You have betrayed everyone you know. That's why they won't do it because it really is a Jim Jones-style cult Kool-Aid drinking thing at the end of the day for these people. They cannot get the vaccine because it will totally shift their entire identity. And I think it's been interesting to see. We're speaking a lot about governors in this episode, and we're talking about the sexual assault allegations of Cuomo.
Starting point is 00:25:37 I think it's important that we mention what's happening right now with governors across the country. And COVID is obviously a big subject, but we're seeing right now a lot of silence from Republicans on the fact that Governor Ron DeSantis is literally killing his people. This is becoming like a genocide at this point in Florida, where nearly one third of all the cases in the country of COVID-19 are coming from the state of Florida and Texas, two states which have notoriously defied all the recommendations of public health officials, have released merchandise mocking public health officials trying to save lives. And we saw DeSantis just a few weeks ago release merchandise that said, don't Fauci my Florida. Don't Fauci my Florida. Well,
Starting point is 00:26:32 one in every like 1400 Floridians is now in the hospital. I think, yes, please Fauci Florida, Fauci the entire country because you're killing us. Don't Fauci my Florida. Don't DeSantis my family, you jagoff. Governor DeSantis, he goes back to the GQP playbook here, which is blame immigrants. I'm not even sure. Play the video so we can just try to even dissect. I don't think it's possible, but play the video of what DeSantis said recently. Joe Biden has taken to himself to try to single out Florida over COVID. This is a guy who ran for president saying he was going to, quote, shut down the virus.
Starting point is 00:27:14 And what has he done? He's imported more virus from around the world by having a wide open southern border. Why don't you do your job? Why don't you get this border secure? And until you do that, I don't want to hear a blip about COVID from you. There's so many layers to that that probably need to be discussed. On the one hand, DeSantis, Death Santas, is pro-COVID. He's been enacting legislation and orders that prevent private businesses, that has his own government intervene to prevent private business from being safe, from having
Starting point is 00:27:55 common sense mask mandates and to requiring the vaccine. DeSantis is someone who's done that with school districts to prevent school districts to try to be healthy. Death Santas has promoted the spread of covid. And then he blames Biden for the spread of covid in the state where he's the governor, which is the most pathetic form of leadership in the world by Death Santas, because you can literally compare his state and how they're doing to other states and how other states are being led by true leaders, which are usually democratic states. And then he does the usual playbook, which is blaming immigrants for COVID. And so just kind of what is it? Is COVID serious or is it not serious, Death Santas? Because what you seem to be saying also is this is a serious disease.
Starting point is 00:28:49 So you can get everybody vaccinated and correct that. But you're out there spewing untruths about COVID. And so it's just such a problematic opinion that leads to people being killed. I saw a funny quote going around online that said, the irony of these anti-vaxxers saying they don't want to be a part of what they call an experiment is that they're now part of the control group. And we're seeing the effects of that. I thought that was brilliant. You are part of the experiment. And guess what? Our hypothesis is proving true because you are the ones who are in the hospitals. And by the way, look at a fucking map around DeSantis. You're not on the
Starting point is 00:29:31 border. There's no border country right on top of you. Can you pull that graphic up? Oh yeah. Let me pull it up right now. So you could see, if you look at this image, in fact, if you look at the image, it looks like it all is stemming from Florida and coming out of Florida, which would lead me to say that maybe perhaps the most dangerous border in the United States of America is actually the Florida border and that everybody, all the states on the Florida border should be petrified to be that close to a state that is willfully killing its citizens and spreading a dangerous disease. One of the things that the GQP does also, you know, which is just kind of pure gaslighting. I don't know if you saw this, Brett, myself, Brett, Jordy, we're all vaccinated. And when we
Starting point is 00:30:19 get together, you know, in a safe environment, you always see like the GQP go into some of your messages and basically be like, all three of you should have been wearing masks when you saw each other as family. Well, look, we know as brothers that we're all vaccinated. And we, at the end of the day, practice safe conditions. You are the ones spreading it. We're afraid of you. We're afraid of going into public and catching it from and catching it from you at the end of the day. So it's just so weird that they should be the ones who are what you're gaslighting me for not wearing masks when you're you're the proponent. And it goes back to that Elise Stefanik quote. They're just gaslighters at the end of the day. You're promoting as a president the biggest sexual predator out there and your party is led by pedophiles and you're out there throwing stones when you live in the ultimate GQP glass house, you stand for nothing, GQP, other than the destruction of the United States of
Starting point is 00:31:28 America and death, which is why me, Brett, Jordy, everybody listening to this, the movement that has been helped built by people like you have been listening, it are fighting back against it every day. We'll be right back after these messages with Representative Malcolm Kenyatta. What's up, Midas Mighty? Did you know that companies around the world produce 2 billion pounds of new plastic every day? Yet no matter how much we put in our recycling bin, just 9% of plastic actually gets recycled. I want to tell you about Grove Collaborative, a website that I use. And Grove Collaborative, they believe it's time to stop making single-use plastic. Grove Collaborative is an online marketplace that delivers healthy home beauty and personal care products directly to you imagine going to a website where literally all the good stuff that's going to be healthy for you
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Starting point is 00:33:37 Wow. We are joined by Representative Malcolm Kenyatta. Let's go. Let's go. Malcolm Kenyatta. Let's go, Jordy. Malcolm Kenyatta serves as a Pennsylvania state representative for the 181st district since 2019, and he is running for United States Senate. Malcolm Kenyatta, welcome to the Midas Touch podcast. I am so, so excited to be here.
Starting point is 00:34:04 And as I said before we got started, I'm a big fan, so happy to be here. And that's a big honor for us to have a fan like you, a rising star in the Democratic Party. And as you're traveling Pennsylvania, as you're speaking to voters right now, what is the biggest issue that Pennsylvania voters are telling you is their biggest concern right now, Representative? So this election, right, and I think ultimately it's every election, right? Because here's the thing, I'll lead off answering your question a little bit in an odd way. What's so frustrating for me and I think for a lot of voters is we are talking about the same stuff. We're talking about the same stuff that we've been
Starting point is 00:34:46 talking about election after election after election, right? We're talking about whether or not every family is going to have access to a good job and a safe community where their kids go to a good school and can really pursue whatever their God-given dreams and potential is. That's what we're talking about all the time. But I think right now, we know that there are two things that are at the core of this and every election. A, are we going to have a democracy? That is the big question right now. Are we even going to have a democracy? And then is that democracy going to work for working people? Is that democracy then going to address these really persistent my district, try to shut people up who look like me, who've had, who come from working class families like I do, voters who are young like me. They're trying to shut us up because they don't have any solution on how to deal with these
Starting point is 00:35:56 concerns that have been talked about by voters election after election. And it's really not Democrat versus Republican that's on the ballot. It really is democracy and one party representing those values and the other party, whether they still could even be called Republican anymore. We call them the GQP because they've just become kind of crazy cultists, but who represent fascism. And that's on display in your state pretty much in a greater degree than maybe anywhere in the country. That's absolutely right. You know, I'd said this maybe last, it was last September or October, I said that my colleagues were acting a lot more like a cult than a caucus. They are dead set on doing everything they can to shut us up. You know, they talk about freedom and use all these buzzwords,
Starting point is 00:36:54 but you don't have any freedom if you can't participate in the democratic process. None of us can have freedom if we don't have the ability to show up as easily as possible to cast our vote. And that means show up physically at your polling location or show up by mailing in a ballot or show up at our early voting site. And again, I've been tying these two things together because they are inextricably linked. They want to block us from voting because they don't have any good ideas about how to actually help working families. And why I decided to even run for this is I've gotten so fed up with hearing so many people talk about me, talk about people who come from communities like me, but never want us to be in the room
Starting point is 00:37:46 where decisions about whether we act or don't act are made. For so many folks in Washington and in Harrisburg, the issues we're talking about are hypothetical, right? So when, you know, they can talk about educating all of our kids, but so many of those folks, their kids are going to grade schools. So when we are standing up saying we need to fully fund our education, and they're telling us to shut up, they don't even know what we're talking about. They don't even know what it means for families to send their kids to a place where there is lead, asbestos, and mold like we have all across Pennsylvania. So as we talk about infrastructure nationally, I'm telling you, we have a lot of infrastructure projects that need to be done right here, but we can't get our colleagues to focus on it because their entire
Starting point is 00:38:34 job has been to be at the beck and call of their big donors. The Commonwealth Foundation, which is basically a subsidiary of the Koch Brothers Foundation. Those folks are the main donors for state level Republicans. And so they don't give a damn about what working families are talking about. They care about what do their donors need and what their donors need are completely out of line with what most Pennsylvanians need. No, we've seen what's happened in Arizona with the cyber ninjas, with their fake audit, which is completely crazy. You know, the Republicans in your state, though, apparently look at what the cyber ninjas are doing there and say, how can we get that crew into our state?
Starting point is 00:39:21 What we really need in our state after even seeing all of the disaster. I mean, we all knew it was going to be a disaster, but the results speak for themselves that these are incompetent and crazy people. And the Republicans in your side look at that and go, you know what? We need that here. Does that just frustrate the heck out of you? You know, stupid is as stupid does. And you have these silly stunt queens going around the country, embarrassing themselves, embarrassing our state, not understanding why they lost. You know, instead of saying, hey, we lost this election, we need to really take a hard look at why the American people in such overwhelming numbers rejected the politics of destruction and division and elected Joe Biden and gave Democrats a majority in the House and the Senate. They have
Starting point is 00:40:12 not stopped for one second to look in the mirror and say, maybe most Americans don't support us trying to limit their access to the polls. And that's why they came out in record numbers to kick us out of office. Maybe most Americans don't believe that we need to do more and more tax cuts for billionaires and for folks who are well off and well connected. And that's why they voted us out of office. Maybe most Americans don't buy into this idea that we should reject science, ignore the facts and tell people to not wear masks, not get vaccinated. Maybe most Americans don't agree with that. And that's why they've lost. Instead of having any ounce of self-awareness, they have gone down this fever dream path where we are now being asked to
Starting point is 00:40:59 address lies that they told as some types of substantive fact. You know, so I have my colleagues who are saying, oh, we need to completely overhaul the election. And I call their election reform, and I'm using air quotes, I call their election reform bill exactly what it was. It's garbage. I don't want to hear a damn thing from the people who wanted to burn down our whole democracy about what we need to do to secure democracy for the future. Firefighters don't go to arsonists and say, hey, what should we do for fire safety? We shouldn't be going to these folks asking them anything about how we secure our democracy for the future, because the way we secure it is to get them out of office.
Starting point is 00:41:41 And so they're anti-democracy. And these stunt queens are pro-COVID at the end of the day. And they go out there and they literally cheer on the virus and lead their own followers to death. It's unbelievable. It's sick and it's painful because, you know, my partner lost a number of grandparents during this, not all from COVID. But because of the virus, we weren't able to go and be with family as you said, has led to a loss of folks' lives, of folks' livelihoods, all to, in their minds, score political points. They are willing to see the destruction of our economy and to see widespread death to continue to amplify a message from a guy who's not even taking his own advice. Trump got vaccinated. These other folks who are saying don't get
Starting point is 00:42:52 vaccinated, they're vaccinated. They're safe. And they're willing to tear everybody else down, to lead folks down, rather, a path of death and destruction, because they think it helps them politically, even as they keep themselves and their families safe. And that is actually really sick. Do you think that Republicans at this point are just viewing everything as if it's kind of some hypothetical game, as if they're in like a match at the Olympics or something? Like, do they even view their words as having tangible effects on people? Or are they just trying to win at all costs?
Starting point is 00:43:29 So here's what's really sad. And this is just my experience in the state legislature. When I get to Washington, I'll get to know some of these other Republicans better and I'll be able to tell you. What has been really sad for me is that I think it's 25-75, right? You have 25% of my colleagues who are just batshit crazy, okay? They really believe this stuff. Not only do they drink the Kool-Aid, they make the Kool-Aid, right? They are in it. But then you have 75% of folks who are just cowards. And they know better. They know better. You know, some of them
Starting point is 00:44:09 I have worked with on issues on everything from mental health care to reducing regulatory burdens, particularly for returning citizens, to doing things we can to harden our digital infrastructure from intrusions, from malicious actors, foreign and otherwise. You know, we've worked together on substantive things. But unfortunately, they believe that the way they keep themselves from getting a primary opponent is to repeat the most rabid, untethered from reality talking points that are pushed on Fox News and Newsmax. And I don't know where the former president is putting out his statements now. I know he's off Twitter. So wherever the hell they hear what he has to say, that is what they've decided to do.
Starting point is 00:44:58 And that is really unfortunate. I've said over and over to my colleagues, what does it profit you to win a primary election and be responsible for the destruction of the very democracy that you raise your hand and swear to protect? What does it profit you? We had Representative Eric Swalwell on the show recently, and he described what you were talking about, not the the full believers, but the people who he thought were kind of acting about it. He recounted a story, for example, of Ted Cruz, who during the impeachment came to him on the sidelines and said, hey, I think you did a really great job out there. Keep up the good work. And then went out on Fox News and bashed him that night. And what Swalwell referred to it as is an excuse my language, basically called the WWE performative bullshit. Is that how you see it? Have you had
Starting point is 00:45:46 any interactions with Republicans like Representative Swalwell did, where they say one thing in public and then come to you on the side and they're like, hey, I think you're doing a great job out there? Oh, absolutely. That's why I mentioned the 25-75, right? Because I have so many of my colleagues who say, well, Malcolm, you know, my voters look and they show me their Facebook posts and say, look, these people don't think I'm doing enough. You know, so, you know, I just have to say this. I had a Republican leader who said to me during the height of the pandemic, you know, our caucus, I would assume every single member of our caucus is now vaccinated. But at the height of the pandemic, you know, trying to get folks to wear masks because we never, you know, really broke from session. I mean, we were working the entire time. I serve on the state government committee on that committee. I'm the chair of the subcommittee on campaign finance and elections. But that subcommittee, just by virtue of the name state government, you get a sense that is a pretty large belly with.
Starting point is 00:46:44 And the governor's mitigation efforts. We had oversight over those. And so they were bringing us in every day to say, well, let's just reopen zoos. Let's just reopen this. Let's just reopen that. And I made some comments on the floor about them wearing masks, keeping each other safe, keeping our communities safe. And, you know, the speaker like gaveled me out of order or whatever, told me to be quiet.
Starting point is 00:47:04 And then and then one of the Republican leaders afterwards says to me, you know, thank you so much for saying that. I don't know why they won't wear a mask. You know, you know, please keep it up. I said, no, you keep it up and go tell these folks what you're just saying to me right now. Tell your constituents what you say privately. They know this is nonsense. They know it's nonsense. And we are going to throw away this very fragile and precious experiment in democracy. Throw it away, all for a lie. It's so incredibly tragic, honestly, and infuriating, too. I think you've laid out the problem in such a clear and
Starting point is 00:47:47 concise way. I think we all basically understand the threats to our democracy right now and the threats coming from the right. So if you become a senator, what actions would you be able to take that will actually be able to help push back against this threat? And what actions do current senators need to take right now to push back against this threat? What could we be doing? You know, first, I'll start with what individual people can do, right? And what individual people do is going to be part and parcel to how I get to the United States Senate. I said this in a speech that I gave in Gettysburg, where I laid out an eight point plan about what I thought we need to do to secure our democracy. And what I said at the end of that was democracy requires
Starting point is 00:48:30 something of us. It requires something of each and every one of us. You all have used your platform in a way to elevate these issues, getting involved with the skill sets that you have. Every single one of us have to get involved. As I see more and more people engage in direct action, wrist arrest, to urge the Senate to do what is necessary to get rid of the filibuster, which is not sacred. Filibuster is not sacred. But the things that the filibuster is blocking are sacred. Your right to a ballot is sacred. And we have to make a choice. Are we going to defend an arcane rule? Are we going to defend the Jim Crow filibuster more than we defend the right for every single American to choose who their elected officials are. And so this is a moment where everybody needs to recognize the fragility of the time that we are in and put everything on the line
Starting point is 00:49:37 to ensure that we elect leaders who are crystal clear about doing what it takes to protect and expand the right to vote and to elect leaders who are laser focused on making life better for working people. Because as I say over and over again, these things are directly linked. Because Republicans have bad ideas on how to help working people, they want to shut working people up. But working people can't shut up. We cannot give our power away. And we have an opportunity right now to have a big, bold majority. So we're not waiting on
Starting point is 00:50:14 what does Joe Manchin and Kristen Sinema want. If we get a bigger, bolder majority, we can do more than just pass infrastructure, which we need to. We can do more than just pass the reconciliation bill, which we need to. We can do more than just pass the reconciliation bill, which we need to. We can take some of these things that we've been working on and actually make them permanent and shift the lives of families like mine in a robust and sustainable way. As a representative, I've lived in New York. I've lived in Ohio. I lived in
Starting point is 00:50:42 California. Now I'm living in Pennsylvania. Yeah. The people of Pennsylvania, man, they're just the best attributes of everyone I've really ever been around. Specifically, you know, the Democrats here are just amazing. How do we keep them motivated through 2022 and beyond? Yeah, you know what? It's a part of the reason that I decided to run, because we know historically in midterm elections, big portions of the Democratic base sit out those elections. You know, here in Pennsylvania, you know, there are over a half million more Democrats than there are Republicans. And so our issues with winning statewide elections is not that there aren't enough people who believe what Democrats say we believe. They are not always sure if we believe what we say we believe. And a part of the way we have a government that actually works for working people is we have to have more working people in government. You know, my dad was a social worker. My mom was a home health care aid. They adopted my three siblings and divorced when I was very young. My mom and my sisters, my brother's much, much older. We moved five or six different times growing up. I got my first job at 12 years old, washing dishes at this little vegan soul food restaurant to help my mom pay the utility bills.
Starting point is 00:52:08 And sadly, I buried both of my parents before I turned 27 because they didn't have access to quality health care. And I think about the cruel irony of the fact that my mom is home health care aid, working with folks who had severe physical and mental disabilities, that she spent every single day, 12, 16 hours a day, working to make sure other people got their medication on time and then came home to ration her own insulin. That is a story that so many Pennsylvanians understand that they are living through right now. But we have not elected or nominated nearly enough people who understand these issues in their bones, not in a hypothetical way, not in a philosophical way, but who understand it in their bones because they've been there. And on every single one of these issues that we are discussing and that you talk about all the time, these things aren't hypothetical.
Starting point is 00:53:01 Even when we think about the right to vote, they're not trying to stop everybody from voting. They're trying to stop certain people from voting. Black and brown folks, young voters, seniors, all the folks who come from the masses of whom we depend on to get an office in the first place. We can't say we care about working people, but then say, no, no, no, we're not going to nominate one. I think working people, I think we can speak for ourselves. I think we can do better than just having a spokesperson for our concerns, having people who cosplay concern for us. We can speak for ourselves. And that's why I decided to run. And I think that's going to excite a lot of people. Well, Representative Malka Kenyatta,
Starting point is 00:53:49 it's always an honor when we can have a guest on here who we admire and who inspire us. After an interview like this, this is like fuel in the Midas touch engine that as soon as we're off this, me and my brothers are going to be talking about, all right, we got to even work harder than ever. We're super motivated and we're super honored that you are on the Midas Touch Podcast. Thank you so much.
Starting point is 00:54:13 Happy to do it. You take care of yourselves and take care of each other. Representative Malka Kenyatta, everybody. We will be right back after these messages. That's not America. That's not America. We will be right back after these messages. Welcome back, Midas Mighty, to the Midas Touch podcast. I could tell you I'm feeling mightier after that representative, Malcolm Kenyatta, interview. Truly an inspiring candidate.
Starting point is 00:54:46 While we were in the commercial break, I was like, yo, like that was a special interview. Got me pumped up. Like, I'm excited. I'm ready to go after hearing him speak. I'm excited to see him out there and I'm wishing him all the best with his campaign. I think we got some great candidates running for Senate on the Democratic side of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania, obviously such an important state for us. And we got to keep that seat out of the hands of the GQP.
Starting point is 00:55:10 Let's go, PA. How jealous are you guys that he's in my home state? It was slightly jealous. I mean, I don't really make me that jealous, but it was cool. Yeah, it's a coincidence. Speaking of the representative Kenyatta interview. Now, Johnny, I'm extremely jealous of you. Speaking of the representative Kenyatta interview, he mentioned the infrastructure bill and he talked
Starting point is 00:55:31 about the dilapidated state of infrastructure in his district, within Pennsylvania as a whole. And look, the Democrats under Biden have put forward a actual infrastructure plan. This isn't some made up infrastructure week that is promised forever like Trump's other Ponzi schemes, but never comes to fruition because of an inability to execute, but an ability to constantly scam people as Trump and his ilk often do. But one of the interesting things about the Biden infrastructure plan is it does truly appear to have bipartisan support in the Senate. We know, of course, Democrats who helped draft this want more and had to give on some certain issues, which I think are unfortunate, but it is still a significant package. But let's listen to what Mitt Romney had to say about the infrastructure bill recently.
Starting point is 00:56:25 I, for one, think this bill is a good bill on balance. It'll be good for my state. I think it'll be good for every state. We'll get an upgrade, a badly needed upgrade in the infrastructure of this country. Again, is it ideal? Perfect? Far from it. But it's a big step forward and one heck of a huge step. There you have Senator Romney talking about his support for a bipartisan infrastructure bill. And interesting, Senator Bill Cassidy from Louisiana went on the Laura Ingraham show of all places, and I think unexpectedly showed support as well for the infrastructure bill on a platform that's railed against it. Play the clip. Reuters describes this as a glide path to the three point five trillion tonight and their write up of this senator. So your response.
Starting point is 00:57:18 So a couple of things. It is the person in my state stuck in traffic who's fearful of their home flooding, who wants to have a better job, that actually would like to make more money but doesn't make a lot of money now, who really likes this bill. I talked to Fox News watchers. They love this bill. Now, is there somebody who's wealthy? But actually, for the wealthy, this means less. They have chauffeurs. They have private jets. They can fly here and there if it floods. It's the people who live in their own home who are at risk of flooding who
Starting point is 00:57:50 like this. At the end, Laura Ingram tried to butt in and get all out and probably kick him right off the show. But you're seeing this bipartisan support breakthrough because I think infrastructure across the board is an issue that has bipartisan support from the people. I mean, everybody acknowledges the main functions of government. If you're going to argue about anything what government is supposed to do, at its core, government is supposed to get you roads and bridges and make it so that it's safe to travel and things like that. Infrastructure could not be more important. And Trump touted infrastructure for so long that I think even polling is showing that Trump voters are supportive of the
Starting point is 00:58:31 infrastructure bill. Even those who hate Joe Biden, even those who hate Democrats, which is all of them, they love this infrastructure bill. We need it. And once again, I've said this many times, but I don't trust the Republicans at all. I never give them the benefit of the doubt. I never think at the end of the day they will do the right thing. But it is comforting to see some of them peeling off and actually acknowledging at least the polling that's coming to them, saying that they better get behind this bill because their ass will be on the line if they don't.
Starting point is 00:59:01 It's weird, but it's not weird that they had to wait for the polling to come. It's very numbers based, right? I guess that's what we want, right? They're listening to their constituents, but at the most core level, shouldn't they have known that this was good for the country, that this would have been good for their constituents? Why do they have to wait this long? I mean, Jordy, we're seeing it all over with the vaccines too, right? And the mask mandates, they are ignoring the science. They are ignoring what's best for the country. And then it takes until COVID rates spike and people are dying in record numbers for them to go, oh, maybe that was a I don't think that was a bad idea. I don't think it has anything to do with the people that are dying in record numbers.
Starting point is 00:59:41 It's they're just very reactive to the data that they're given, saying, I will not win reelection if I don't support this now. Oh, totally. Everything Republicans do could be brought down to two things, power and money, period. That's how the Republican Party makes their entire decisions. It's never about what is right for the country. It's how will this keep us in power and how will this keep us richer and keep working people down? And so it's not until you see those seismic shifts in the electorate that you see Republicans changing their policies. I know we spoke about vaccines earlier, but I think it's important that we note what we saw with Governor Hutchinson, who was a Republican from Arkansas, who said that he completely regretted a bill that he signed into law that banned local mask mandates. He signed this in,
Starting point is 01:00:33 I think, about a month ago or so. And now he's saying, in hindsight, he wishes that that had not become law. And I'll play just a brief clip of that. I signed it for those reasons that our cases were at a low point. Everything has changed now. And yes, in hindsight, I wish that had not become law. But it is the law. And the only chance we have is either to amend it or for the courts to say that it has an unconstitutional foundation. And that's the problem, though, right? It's that once you go that far, once he signs that bill, there's no easy way to get rid of it. It's already in law. So they would either have to pass another law and good luck getting that through the state government to get on his desk, or I don't really
Starting point is 01:01:18 know what their other options are. They already made it law. Now the Delta variant, you have Delta plus, you're going to have Lambda, you're going to have all these various variants destroying his state and there's nothing he could do. And it's a problem entirely self-made by the governor. And now he regrets it. But guess what? Your people are dying now. It's too late. And I'm happy he's coming around and acknowledging it, but what the fuck, man? It's crazy. What's that expression? It's hindsight 2020. But now it's 2021 and 600,000 Americans are dead. And look, we have a CDC whose sole job is to investigate these things.
Starting point is 01:01:57 It is the number one center for disease control in the world that provides the best data, the best scientists. It is the best and brightest of American ingenuity. And had we followed their advice from day one, and if their advice evolves to reflect better and better and better science and continue to follow that advice, we would be much safer as a nation. So when people go, you're truly going to believe the CDC? Yes. Yeah, I am. I'm going to believe the CDC over some Facebook troll giving me fake statistics who's not a PhD, who hasn't studied disease control. And so, yes, we do trust experts. And Brett, I think we would be remiss. And Jordy, I don't want to leave you out, Jordy. Brett and Jordy,
Starting point is 01:02:52 we would leave me out. I noticed that you always say and Brett and Brett and Brett. And people have let me know. They're like, why doesn't he say and Jordy? And Ben, can you answer? Can you answer? I just did. I just corrected maybe because when I do try to correct myself like that and try to become a better person, you make it all about yourself. And so I exposed myself. OK, I tried to call myself out live. And that's how you make me feel. So maybe maybe have you thought about the way you treat me?
Starting point is 01:03:18 Oh, anyway, I do want to talk about, though, there is a story that you may have heard about Tucker Carlson going to Hungary and speaking at a far right convention there. So let me just explain what this Hungary obsession is. First and foremost, what would your guess be, Jordy? I know you feel left out. So what do you think, Jordy, the gross domestic product is? This is what you do. This is this is you to a T. You try and make me look like a jackass after I put you on the spot for something that you
Starting point is 01:03:55 actually do. And you know what? I'm not going to play your game. I'm not going to play your game. What's the GDP of Hungary? A fairly basic question. Give me 2019 GDP of Hungary. How about we start there? You know what? I'm going going to play your game. What's the GDP of Hungary? A fairly basic question. Give me 2019 GDP of Hungary. How about we start there?
Starting point is 01:04:07 You know what? I'm going to leave. I'm going to leave. So let me tell you this. The GDP of Hungary is one hundred and sixty three billion dollars, which is less than the net worth of some of the richest American billionaires, and which is significantly less than what our infrastructure package is, and which represents- I'll compare it to California.
Starting point is 01:04:36 California's GDP is $3.09 trillion. Okay, that's the best way to explain it, Brett. And then you have all of these far right Americans going to Hungary and supporting their far right leaders there by its nationalistic and authoritarian ruler, Victor Orban, has become a Mecca of the August 3rd of 2021. And the article goes on to say that Tucker Carlson was joined by his peers and traveled to Budapest to support Orban's regime. And this is a quote again from this same Vanity Fair article. We're in Budapest all this week for Tucker Carlson tonight and a documentary for Tucker Carlson Originals. So they are going into a far right fascist led country to promote them. And it should be stated, essentially all white to tout Hungary as the Mecca for anti-wokeness in contrast to the United States of America, which is the most powerful country. I genuinely think that Tucker Carlson would rather have
Starting point is 01:06:15 Victor Orban lead the United States than Joe Biden. Without a doubt. And I think the trip reveals a lot of what we've been saying. It's that the GQP is an authoritarian fascist movement and they're not hiding it. I think it might sound ridiculous if we said this out loud, but Tucker Carlson, I know he's a Fox News host. I have no doubt in my mind that the guy has autocratic ambitions of ruling like a Hungarian despot. I have no doubt in my mind that if Tucker Carlson could be a fascist dictator of the country, he would absolutely do that. And I think part of his trip to Hungary right now is going and planting those seeds and
Starting point is 01:06:59 learning how they operate. The comments that he's made about Hungary and why he likes Hungary so much, apart from the strongman aspect of it, which he has stated that attracts him to Hungary, the ethno-nationalism, everything that's going on there in terms of those respects. But one comment in particular was very revealing to me, and he applauded Hungary and their authoritarian leader by saying, congratulations, because you're truly hated by all the right people. You're truly hated by all the right people. I think that, to me, is the main ideology of the Republican Party today, being hated by, in their mind, who are truly the right people. Are you pissing off the libs? It doesn't matter if you're going to die. Are you pissing off the libs? In that case, you're hated by the right people and you're doing a good job. Are you pissing off Fauci? Do you piss off Fauci who's been telling you all this data? Are you bothering him? Well, then you're doing a great job. It doesn't matter if what you're doing is good for the country, bad for the country, good for you personally. Heck, it doesn't matter if what you're doing is good for the country, bad for the country, good for you personally.
Starting point is 01:08:06 Heck, it doesn't matter if what you're doing is going to kill you personally. As long as you're making other people mad and owning the libs, that's all you need. a propagandist who controls media, becoming a fascist leader to truly understand what Tucker Carlson is doing here. It's right out of the fascist playbook. When you look and you study Mussolini, when you look and you study Hitler, these were individuals who ran fascist, far right, totalitarian, anti-Semitic, nationalistic, disinfo style newspapers in their states. And that's how they actually rose to prominence. For Mussolini, it was El Populo d'Italia. Of course, you know that, Jordi. For Hitler, what was it for Hitler, Jordi?
Starting point is 01:09:07 Of course, Jordi, it was the Volkistkirche Biobachter, was a daily newspaper published by Nazi Germany from the 1920s until the Third Reich. And we see here with Fox News, really a commonality there of not just being okay with spreading fascism here, but connecting to a broader international fascistic movement. And we should really know that that's what's behind it. If you go into this Vanity Fair article, and I would tell everybody to read it, the headline is Tucker Carlson is joining the right wing parade to, quote, illiberal Hungary. You got to read this article. It also talks about a open secrets investigation researcher, Anna Masaglia, who reported that
Starting point is 01:10:03 Tucker Carlson and Fox were actually part of a ongoing foreign influence operation, which this Hungarian government is paying DC lobbyist firms to help funnel money through. And I would say that's also great reporting and fairly obvious because we can literally see it happening. I was just thinking about how this is more projection also. I never really gave this thought until now, but what's the number one thing that the QAnon people, that the right always kind of hammer? They go, the left wants to create a new world order. That's what Tucker is trying to do here. Tucker is trying to create his own kind of Axis Powers 2.0 and have this Axis of Evil of Hungary, of Russia, of all the autocrats around the world, and have America be a part of it brought up the threat of somebody like a Governor DeSantis.
Starting point is 01:11:05 Somebody like Tucker, to me, is a whole lot scarier to me even than a DeSantis as far as somebody who has ambition, who is able to persuade people on the right, and who has these autocratic ambitions that he is pursuing on a daily basis. And, you know, we also tell people to read this article about Steve Bannon, who was trying to create a right wing political academy in Italy. And ultimately, he was not able to set that up. But if you think about the efforts in the Trump administration to start reaching out and building these relationships with fascist leaders. It was all about realignment of power away from democracy, which is why he was so against our allies, against the G7. He would mock our allies, and he would talk positively about Putin. He would talk positively about Kim Jong Un. He would talk positively about other fascist leaders across the world because what he wanted was a Mussolini Hitler style realignment and a propping up of right wing. So it's another reason why to connect this to why are the Midas Touch brothers doing a podcast called Kremlin File? Because we want to show you what's at the root of this. And at the root of this is the rise of authoritarianisms and fascists.
Starting point is 01:12:49 And remember, across history, we've seen the rise of fascists. It's not like this is a new phenomenon historically is since the 18th century, the idea of democracy being a successful, beautiful current digital age where disinfo can swarm, we've seen authoritarian leaders pick apart democracies across the country, feed disinfo to people, and try to create a realignment of power. So again, make sure you subscribe to Kremlin File. And that's just the beginning for Midas Media Network as well. Midas Media Network will be rolling out other original series that we're excited to bring you. As we told you, we were committed. Brett and Jordi have left their jobs to do this full time. We're as committed as you can be to making this a reality. And this is a pro-democracy movement, a pro-democracy media network. When someone
Starting point is 01:14:15 asks, what does the Midas Media Network do? We celebrate democracy. Does that mean every one of our originals is going to be ultra political? No, it doesn't. A lot of them are going to be. But at its core, the thread you're going to find in all of our content is a celebration of democracy and a celebration of what it took to fight against thousands of years of fascism, of kings and queens and people who ruled despotically and why this movement has been so important and why we need to preserve it and save it. I want to give a shout out to all the Midas Mighty out there. And I want to also thank you for supporting Midas
Starting point is 01:15:06 Touch by getting Midas Touch gear. I seen I went to Costco this past weekend and I saw there another it was a family but there were two people in the same family. One was wearing a vaxxed and relaxed
Starting point is 01:15:22 t-shirt and one was wearing a vaxxed bracelet. Let's go and one was wearing a vaxxed bracelet. Let's go. I didn't stop them and I kept on shopping, but it made me really happy to see. It's always great to see. And we have a new product in the store now, too, for all the fans of Kremlin File. We have these great free Navalny shirts that y'all should check out. Put it up on the screen for them to see.
Starting point is 01:15:44 Put it up right now screen for them to see it. Put it up right now. It's really great. And we're really excited to be expanding this pro-democracy mission. And at the end of the day, our pro-democracy efforts start with you out there listening, you making phone calls, you making text messages, you telling your friends what you've learned in these podcasts and using it as a platform from which you could go and spread pro-democracy messages around communities across this country and around the world. So we want to thank you again for tuning in to another episode of the Midas Touch podcast. It's always so much fun doing these shows. We're loving the live.
Starting point is 01:16:21 Guys, where can they get the gear? Where can they get the gear? At store.midastouch.com. I think they could read it, Jordy, on the bottom before. Yeah, but our listeners, Ben, unfortunately, the people who are just strictly listening to the podcast, Ben, they can't read what's on the screen right now. Store.MidasTouch.com. And thank you all for supporting us and supporting Midas Touch. And most importantly, for supporting democracy and the health and well-being of yourself and your family because at the end of the day that's what it's all about thank you again for listening to the Midas Touch podcast and we'll see you next week guys you know
Starting point is 01:16:56 where it's at oh I'll see you for Legal AF this weekend another episode of Legal AF with me and Popak so get ready for that yeah we're breaking down some legal issues. And we'll see you next time, Midas Mighty, next week on the Brother Midas Touch podcast. Thank you so much. Shout out to the Midas Mighty!

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