The MeidasTouch Podcast - Trump Gets MOST DEVASTATING NEWS Yet as Biden SOARS

Episode Date: October 20, 2023

On this episode of the MeidasTouch Podcast, we cover President Biden’s primetime address live and dig into the most consequential news of the week. The GOP is still in chaos with no end in sight; ex-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell pleads guilty in a crushing blow for Trump; Trump makes a fool out of himself in court again and so much more! DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS: Magic Spoon: Head to magicspoon.com/meidas to grab a custom bundle of cereal and try the magic for yourself. Use our promo code MEIDAS at checkout to save $5 off your order! Henson Shaving: Visit HensonShaving.com/MEIDAS to pick the razor for you and use code MEIDAS for 2 years worth of free blades! Lomi: Lomi: Visit Lomi.com/MEIDAS and use code MEIDAS and checkout to save $50! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 American Psyop: https://pod.link/1652143101 Burn the Boats: https://pod.link/1485464343 Majority 54: https://pod.link/1309354521 Political Beatdown: https://pod.link/1669634407 Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://pod.link/1676844320 Uncovered: https://pod.link/1690214260 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard. When the barbecue's lit, but there's nothing to grill. When the in-laws decide that, actually, they will stay for dinner. Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer. So download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes. Plus enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and

terms apply. Instacart. Groceries that over-deliver. Discover the magic of Bad MGM Casino, where the excitement is always on deck. Pull up a seat and check out a wide variety of table games with a live dealer. From roulette to blackjack, watch as a dealer hosts

your table game and live chat with them throughout your experience to feel like you're actually at the casino. The excitement doesn't stop there. With over 3,000 games to choose from, including fan favorites like Cash Eruption, UFC Gold Blitz, and more. Make deposits instantly

to jump in on the fun and make same day withdrawals if you win. Download the BetMGM Ontario app today. You don't want to miss out. Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly.

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. If by release the Kraken, Donald Trump's co-defendant Sidney Powell meant plead guilty and enter into a cooperation agreement with the Fulton County District Attorney against Donald Trump, consider the Kraken released. A surprise twist when I woke up this morning, West Coast time, and I started opening up my phone, I saw the plea hearing taking place where Sidney Powell took a guilty plea on six separate charges. And she's already entered into a cooperation agreement with Fulton County District Attorney's Office, where she's provided

a proffer. We will talk about that. The MAGA Republican Speaker of the House vote is still in complete and utter shambles after MAGA Republicans ousted their prior Speaker of the House, the most spineless Speaker in American history, Kevin McCarthy. But they went from spineless to speakerless. And now they're just threatening each other all day. Apparently, people who are not supporting Jim Jordan, an individual who covered up sexual abuse and supported insurrection, they are now, guess what, being threatened by Jim Jordan's crew. And Jim Jordan, who is not exactly an arbiter of honesty, is denying that he's behind it. But people like Ken Buck and Don Bacon and other MAGA Republicans, or I guess they call themselves moderate Republicans, claim their lives are being threatened by Jim Jordan supporters. That's what's going on now. And rather than try to reach a deal with Democrats or even come up with some interim solution like empowering the speaker pro tem to be speaker of the House, the solution that these freaking geniuses have come up with on

the MAGA Republican side is let's do another vote. Let's just have Jim Jordan lose again on the House floor, and let's keep voting through the weekend. And folks, these are the people who want to lecture you and me and all of us on how we should be living our lives, completely and utterly pathetic. Speaking of completely and utterly pathetic, Donald Trump showed up at the New York Attorney General civil fraud trial for a short period of time this week. His former CFO, Allen Weisselberg, may have committed perjury when he was on the stand, and New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a letter brief to try to smoke that out. Also, Donald Trump was yelling in court and he was told to be quiet by Judge N'Goran. And then he went back to Florida because he wants to watch a golf tournament.

And he says that he's stuck in New York, but he's watching a golf tournament and somehow compared that to Israel. And there was some bombshell testimony today from an outside appraiser who basically said that Eric Trump was lying in his deposition. Surprise, surprise. But in a short bit of time, we will be showing you, it's why we started a little bit early today, President Biden is set to address the nation from the Oval Office. See right there, President Biden just posted on his social media,

on social media, the following. Hamas's terrorist attack against Israel, the need for humanitarian assistance in Gaza, Russia's ongoing brutal war against Ukraine. We are at a global inflection point that is bigger than party or politics. Tonight, I'll address the nation at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 Pacific from the Oval Office. We will be bringing you that speech live and then having commentary after. And then we will resume the normal Midas Touch podcast. I'm Ben Micellus, joined by Brett Micellus and Jordy Micellus.

I guess he's off again. Is Jordy just picks and chooses when he does the podcast now? Is that his thing? Jordy's got the life, man. That's all I'm saying. How do we get Jordy's schedule? That's what I want to figure out. How do we get Jordy's schedule? Because he is just living it up, apparently. I don't know. I'm just kidding. We miss Jordy always when he's not on the show. Jordy, if you're listening, we miss you dearly. We look forward to having you back on the show very soon. A big week of live events here, Ben, on the Midas Dutch Network. I feel like you have been live every second of the day. For those who weren't able to see Ben before the show, which is everybody except

me and Salty, Ben has been live for so much time at this point that Ben actually started the show in beatdown mode. For fans of political beatdown, you know that at the beginning of every show with Michael Cohen, Ben puts the arms up, ready to go. And Ben started this show with that. And I had to say, Ben, wrong, wrong live stream. We're on it. We're in the Midas Touch podcast this time. And Ben had to readjust for this show. But we are moments away from a very important speech from President Biden. President Biden addressing the nation on the situation in Israel, in Gaza, and in Ukraine. It's a foreign policy speech with massive, massive implications. As everybody knows, Biden was just in Israel. He

did a quick trip there and met with world leaders, and now he's back. Man, his schedule is insane. His schedule is wild. But great to see Biden taking action. Looking forward to what he's going to say tonight. And man, these Republicans just keep stepping on rakes every single day, Ben. I know you've been covering it live every step of the way. I just don't know what they think is going to be different. They now have a vote set for Friday at 10 a.m. Eastern to vote for Jim Jordan again,

but he's not making any friends, that's for sure. So I don't know what their plan is. Can somebody remind me, please, what was the definition of insanity again? Because I think it's exactly what the Republicans are doing, trying over and over and over again and not even getting the same result. It's even worse than insane because they're not even getting the same result. They're getting worse results every time they do it. Jim Jordan continuously is actually scaring away Republicans with these tactics. Finally, for the very first time, these MAGA Republicans are seeing what it's like when these MAGA stochastic terrorist tactics are turned on them

by their own people. And guess what? They don't like it very much and they are lashing out over it. And so it's been an interesting thing to kind of watch them get kind of a taste of what they've been inflicting on the country. I mean, I wish it on absolutely nobody, of course, but- And here we are right now. Let's go to President Biden in the Oval Office. Good evening, my fellow Americans. We're facing an inflection point in history. One of those moments where the decisions we make today are going to determine the future for decades to come. That's what I'd like to talk with you about tonight. You know, earlier this morning, I returned from Israel.

They tell me I'm the first American president to travel there during a war. I met with the prime minister and members of his cabinet. And most movingly, I met with Israelis who had personally lived through horrific horror of the attack by Hamas on the 7th of October. More than 1,300 people slaughtered in Israel, including at least 32 American citizens. Scores of innocence from infants to the elderly grandparents, Israelis, Americans taken hostage. As I told the families of Americans being held captive by Hamas, we're pursuing every avenue to bring their loved ones home. As president, there is no higher priority for me than the safety of Americans held hostage. The terrorist group Hamas unleashed pure, unadulterated evil in the world.

But sadly, the Jewish people know perhaps better than anyone that there is no limit to the depravity of people when they want to inflict pain on others. In Israel, I saw people who are strong, determined, resilient, and also angry, in shock, and in deep, deep pain. I also spoke with President Abbas, the Palestinian Authority, and reiterated the United States remains committed to the Palestinian people's right to dignity and to self-determination. The actions of Hamas terrorists don't take that right away. Like so many others, I'm heartbroken by the tragic loss of Palestinian life, including the explosion at the hospital in Gaza, which was not done by the Israelis. We mourn every innocent life lost. We can't ignore the humanity of innocent Palestinians who only want to live in peace and have an opportunity. You know, the assault on Israel echoes nearly 20 months of war, tragedy and brutality inflicted on the people of Ukraine.

People that were very badly hurt since Putin launched his all out invasion. We've not forgotten the mass graves, the bodies found bearing signs of torture, rape used as a weapon by the Russians and thousands and thousands of Ukrainian children forcibly taken into Russia, stolen from their parents. It's sick. Hamas and Putin represent different threats, but they share this in common. They both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy, completely annihilate it. Hamas' stated purpose for existing is the destruction of the state of Israel and the murder of Jewish people. Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people.

Hamas uses Palestinian civilians as human shields, and innocent Palestinian families are suffering greatly because of them. Meanwhile, Putin denies Ukraine has or ever had real statehood. He claims the Soviet Union created Ukraine. And just two weeks ago, he told the world that if the United States and our allies withdraw, and if the United States withdraw, our allies will as well, military support for Ukraine would have, quote, a week left to live. But we're not withdrawing. I know these conflicts can seem far away. It's natural to ask, why does this matter to America? So let me share with you why making sure Israel and Ukraine succeed is vital for America's national security. You know, history has taught us that when terrorists don't pay a price for their terror,

when dictators don't pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and death and more destruction. They keep going and the cost and the threats to America and the world keep rising. So if we don't stop Putin's appetite for power and control in Ukraine, he won't limit himself just to Ukraine. Putin's already threatened to remind, quote, remind Poland that their Western land was a gift from Russia. One of his top advisors, a former president of Russia, has called Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania Russia's Baltic provinces. These are all NATO allies. For 75 years, NATO has kept peace in Europe and has been the cornerstone of American security. And if Putin attacks a NATO ally, we will defend every inch of NATO which a treaty

requires and calls for. We'll have something that we do not seek. Make it clear, we do not seek. We do not seek to have American troops fighting in Russia or fighting against Russia. Beyond Europe, we know that our allies and maybe most important adversaries and competitors are watching. They're watching our response in Ukraine as well. And if we walk away and let Putin erase Ukraine's independence, would be aggressors around the world be emboldened to try the same? The risk of conflict and chaos could spread in other parts of the world, in the Indo-Pacific, in the Middle East, especially in the Middle East. Iran is supporting Russia in Ukraine, and it's supporting Hamas and other terrorist groups in the region, and will continue to hold them accountable, I might add. The United States and our partners

across the region are working to build a better future for the Middle East, one where the Middle East is more stable, better connected to its neighbors, and through innovative projects like the Indian Middle East-Europe Rail Corridor that I announced this year at the summit of the world's biggest economies. More predictable markets, more employment, less rage, less grievances, less war when connected. It benefits the people who would benefit the people of the Middle East and would benefit us. American leadership is what holds the world together. American alliances are what keep us, America, safe. American values are what make us a partner that other nations want to work with. To put all that at risk, if we walk away from Ukraine,

we turn our backs on Israel. It's just not worth it. That's why tomorrow I'm going to send to Congress an urgent budget request to fund America's national security needs, to support our critical partners, including Israel and Ukraine. It's a smart investment that's going to pay dividends for American security for generations. Help us keep American troops out of harm's way. Help us build a world that is safer, more peaceful, more prosperous for our children and grandchildren. In Israel, we must make sure that they have what they need to protect their people today and always. The security package I'm sending to Congress and asking Congress to do is an unprecedented commitment to Israel's security that will sharpen Israel's qualitative military edge, which we've committed

to, the qualitative military edge. We're going to make sure Iron Dome continues to guard the skies over Israel. We're going to make sure other hostile actors in the region know that Israel is stronger than ever and prevent this conflict from spreading. Look, at the same time, President Netanyahu and I discussed again yesterday the critical need for Israel to operate by the laws of war. That means protecting civilians in combat as best as they can. And the people of Gaza urgently need food, water, and medicine. Yesterday, in discussions with the leaders of Israel and Egypt, I secured an agreement for the first shipment of humanitarian assistance from the United Nations to Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Hamas does not divert or steal these shipments. We're going to provide an opening

for sustained delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance for the Palestinians. As I said in Israel, as hard as it is, we cannot give up on peace. We cannot give up on a two-state solution. Israel and Palestinians equally deserve to live in safety, dignity, and peace. You know, and here at home, we have to be honest with ourselves. In recent years, too much hate has given too much oxygen, fueling racism, the rise of anti-Semitism, Islamic phobia right here in America. It's also intensified in the wake of recent events that led to the horrific threats and attacks that both shock us and break our hearts. On October 7th, terror attacks have triggered deep scars and terrible memories in the Jewish community.

Today, Jewish families worried about being targeted in school, wearing symbols of their face walking down the street, or going out about their daily lives. And I know many of you in the Muslim American community, the Arab American community, the Palestinian American community, and so many others are outraged and hearty, saying to yourselves, here we go again with Islamophobia and distrust we saw after 9-11. Just last week, a mother was brutally stabbed. A little boy here in the United States, a little boy who just turned six years old, was murdered in their home outside of Chicago. His name was Wadiha. Wadiha, a proud American, a proud Palestinian American family. We can't stand by and stand silent when this happens.

We must, without equivocation, denounce anti-Semitism. We must also, without equivocation, denounce Islamophobia. And to all you hurting, those of you hurting, I want you to know I see you. You belong. And I want to say this to you. You're all America. You're all American. This is in a moment, you know, in moments like these, when fear and suspicion, anger and rage run hard, that we have to work harder than ever to hold on to the values that make us who we are.

We're a nation of religious freedom, freedom of expression. We all have a right to debate and disagree without fear of being targeted in schools or workplaces or in our communities. I must renounce violence and vitriol. See each other not as enemies, but as fellow Americans. When I was in Israel yesterday, I said that when America experienced the hell of 9-11, we felt enraged as well. While we sought and got justice, we made mistakes. So I caution the government of Israel not to be blinded by rage. In Congress, to make sure we can continue to send Ukraine the weapons they need to defend themselves and their country without interruption. So Ukraine can stop Putin's brutality in Ukraine. They are succeeding. When Putin invaded Ukraine,

he thought he would take Kiev and all of Ukraine in a matter of days. Well, over a year later, Putin has failed, and he continues to fail. Kiev still stands because of the bravery of the Ukrainian people. Ukraine has regained more than 50 percent of the territory Russian troops once occupied, backed by U.S.-led coalition of more than 50 countries around the world, all doing its part to support Kyiv. What would happen if we walked away? We are the essential nation. Meanwhile, Putin has turned to Iran and North Korea to buy attack drones and ammunition to terrorize Ukrainian cities and people. From the outset, I've said I will not send American troops to fight in Ukraine. All Ukraine is asking for is help for the weapons, munitions, the capacity, the capability to push invading Russian forces off their land and the air defense system

to shoot down Russian missiles before they destroy Ukrainian cities. Let me be clear about something. We send Ukrainian equipment sitting in our stockpiles. And when we use the money allocated by Congress, we use it to replenish our own stores, our own stockpiles with new equipment, equipment that defends America and is made in America. Patriot missiles for air defense batteries made in Arizona, artillery shells manufactured in 12 states across the country in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, and so much more. You know, just as in World War II, today patriotic American workers are building the arsenal of democracy and serving the cause of freedom. Let me close with this. Earlier this year, I boarded Air Force One for a secret flight to Poland.

There I boarded a train with blacked-out windows for a 10-hour ride each way to Kyiv to stand with the people of Ukraine ahead of the one-year anniversary of their brave fight against Putin. I'm told I was the first American to enter a war zone not controlled by the United States military since President Lincoln. With me was just a small group of security personnel and a few advisors. But when I exited that train and met Zelensky, President Zelensky, I didn't feel alone. I was bringing with me the idea of America, the promise of America, to the people who are today fighting for the same things we fought for 250 years ago. Freedom, independence, self-determination.

As I walk through Kiev with President Zelensky, with air raid sirens sounding in the distance, I felt something I've always believed more strongly than ever before. America is a beacon to the world. Still, still. Whereas my friend Madeleine Albright said, the indispensable nation. Tonight there are innocent people all over the world who hope because of us, who believe in a better life because of us, who are desperate not to be forgotten by us

and are waiting for us. But time is of the essence. I know we have our divisions at home. We have to get past them. We can't let petty, partisan, angry politics get in the way of our responsibilities as a great nation. We cannot and will not let terrorists like Hamas and tyrants like Putin win. I refuse to let that happen. In moments like these, we have to remember who we are. We are the United States of America. The United States of America. And there is nothing, nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together.

My fellow Americans, thank you for your time. May God bless you all. May God protect our troops. Powerful, powerful words. The United States of America, an indispensable nation. People all over the world hoping for a better world because of us, waiting for us. But time is of the essence. I know we have divisions, but do not let petty partisan politics get in the way and allow tyrants like Vladimir Putin and Hamas win. We are the United States of America. The United States of America. Nothing is beyond our capacity if we do it together. If we do it together. One of the most powerful speeches, frankly, I've ever seen in my lifetime that we just watched together. And I'm sure in the lifetimes of all of you watching this powerful, powerful speech, Brett, your reaction?

Man, I have the chills right now. Watching that, you see a president who is really in the right place at the right time. And I truly think every time that there is a global crisis that strikes, I personally am incredibly thankful that we have President Biden in charge and not all these Republicans who just shoot from the hip and aren't measured at all and don't think things through and just go with what their gut says. And their gut is usually wrong about every single thing. I mean, we haven't even gotten into it yet, but we started the show by

speaking about the dysfunction in the Republican Party and to contrast our words at the beginning with how powerful that speech was that we just watched from President Biden. I mean, I think the difference is so, so, so clear. We saw President Biden there selling these global efforts to the American people. Why do we need to be involved in Ukraine? Why do we need to help Israel? Why should we help the Palestinian people? I think Biden really showed a lot of conviction in why we should be out there. He connected it to the whole idea of America. He connected it to the idea of American values, a shared vision for the country. I think he kind of had a twofold argument here that he was weaving. He was weaving a moral argument that this is the right thing to do. This is what we

should be doing. And then a strategic argument of why this is so important to not just our national security, but the national security of all of our allies, the national security of all of Europe. He really set the stakes as to why we are doing what we are doing and why it is so important in Ukraine, for example, that we don't just sit back and let Ukraine fall to Putin, but that we stay involved and we continue to help them before the problem gets worse. He used a lot of words like that. He used American values. This is what makes us America. He spoke about us being a global partner. He spoke about issuing an urgent budget request to fund America's national security needs to fund Israel and Ukraine.

And it shows you that while it is a clown show and while it is funny at times, I mean, I'm the first one to admit that it's funny to watch the chaos of the Republicans in Congress, that the stakes are really high. Their clownishness actually has massive ramifications. And at a time like this, I mean, let's face it, the timing could not be worse for the Republicans to be in such chaos, for the Republicans to be in crisis, running around like a chicken without a head through the halls of Congress, unable to even do the basics of government and elect a Speaker of the House. It's the most basic, the most basic thing imaginable. So now Biden needs to get some money for Ukraine and for Israel, humanitarian aid to Gaza. These are serious, serious issues with incredibly, incredibly high stakes. And we have a Republican Congress. Let's be clear about who is causing this. A Republican Congress that is completely missing in action. a political speech. That was an American speech. And the incentive structure to try to attack

each other, that's not what President Biden does. So if you're looking for a WWE style, cosplay, fascist, mafia. That's not what President Biden does. That's not what I want our president to do. It's not how I want our president to behave. The language in that speech That speech was, who are we as Americans? And yes, it was framed within this inflection point where you have Ukraine under attack from a tyrant like Vladimir Putin. You have Hamas engaged in terrorist conduct, all inextricably intertwined. But this is also about who are we as Americans? And although President Biden didn't say these words expressly, implied in this speech is wake up. Wake up. Put your petty politics aside and wake up. We are Americans and the world is counting on us right now. And as I say over and over again on the Midas Touch podcast, I don't give a shit about Democrat, Republican. I don't. I care about America. I care about supporting our allies. I care about making sure that they are not suffering amongst American people. That is what I care of our aid to Ukraine. It is about our importance of supporting our allies. It is President Biden at his best talking about the personal experiences

he has and the grievances that he has heard from people around the world and how he understands them, how he relates to them, how he understands what they're going through. But this was a wake-up call to America to get over petty politics and remember who we are here in the United States of America. That's what that was about right there. Well said, Ben. And it was a repudiation of hate also at the end of the day, a repudiation of the kind of actions and talk that we hear in this country and frankly around the world. And it was an interesting contrast to hear Biden's words speaking about not giving hate all this oxygen in the US and looking at it side by side and seeing the commentary, both from our commenters here watching with us on the Midas Touch Network,

watching on other social media platforms as other people reacted in real time and were praising Biden's speech and thanking him for these calls to unity. And then, of course, looking at the contrast of kind of one of the issues that, while he's not calling it out directly in the speech, is one of the problems, which is a lot of these Republicans and these Republican accounts ignoring the broader message and instead trying to attack for a little, oh, Biden paused a little in his speech here. Oh, look, he stuttered over this word. It's like, listen to the message. The stakes are so high and you are out there tweeting because that's all you know how to do. Actually listen to a leader and learn how to govern and learn what the stakes are and at least figure out how to run your own party

before you start doing stuff like that. And it's such an important moment because it's hard for me to think back to a time like right now, other than thinking back to the moment after 9-11 and how raw emotions were then, how people were fearful, how people let that fear turn into rage, and how politicians, quite frankly, use that rage in order to send our country down a very, very dangerous path, a very expensive path, a path that led to the death of many civilians overseas, a path that led to the death of many US American troops. That is what President Biden right now is trying to reflect on as well in this moment. And he's trying to tell Israel and he's trying to tell the world, we need to learn from our

mistakes in the past and not repeat them. At the end of the day, Biden's speech was a push for peace. He explicitly said that we cannot give up on peace. And that's why America's place in the world is so important. And that's why this MAGA movement that wants the United States of America and our leadership to completely detach from the world and to not be a world leader, to not be a global leader. That's why it is so dangerous, because it is in these moments that the world does look to us for leadership. And we're lucky that President Biden right now is the leader of the United States of America to guide us through that moment. I'm thankful to be able to watch that speech, Ben, with everybody here with the

Midas Mighty. I mean, what a powerful moment. And what I think we should do also, because that was so important and people appreciated when we did this the last time, let's maybe post that speech just on its own on our YouTube channel after we air this episode so that folks could look back and play that and share it far and wide, because I think it's vital that people see that everywhere. Couldn't agree more with you there. And as I reflect on President Biden's powerful words right there, though, I can't help but think about what else was going on in the news today. Specifically, just over the past 24, 48 hours where you even had Donald Trump show up at the civil fraud trial. We saw just now in President Biden's speech what presidential looks like.

This is how Donald Trump is running around in his fascist frolic across the country doing things like this. This was yesterday in court. Play this clip. But this is what we go through because they want to keep me here instead of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and lots of other great places. They want me to be here. Will you be back tomorrow night, Jim?

Probably not. Probably we're having a very big tournament, professional golf tournament at Durrell, so probably not. It's truly, truly shameful. We are so much better than that here in the United States of America. We, we deserve better than that here in the United States of America. I want to talk about what went down in New York attorney general, uh, in the New York attorney general civil fraud trial. I want to talk about

Sidney Powell releasing the Kraken. So much Kraken got released, apparently, and made her plea. The Kraken. The Kraken. The Kraken cracked open. The Kraken. So much Kraken. So much Kraken, it became Kraken. We'll talk about that. I want to talk about what is going on in the House of Representatives with the chaos that's being caused by Magna Republicans. I want to remind everybody as well about our Patreon. We do not have outside investors here at the Midas Touch Network.

If you look at our digital stats, more people watch the Midas Touch Network on YouTube than watch CNN or Fox. That's how fast this platform is growing. About two times as many people watch the Midas Touch Network on digital in one day than go to Truth Social in an entire month. Those are the stats. That's the data with no outside investors, thanks to you. So if you want to know, is this growing? Is this working?

And one of the things we've done as we've grown with Patreon is you see brick by brick how we built. MidasTouch.com, the destination of all pro-democracy breaking news, has been built off of this model. We have an incredible editor-in-chief in Ron Filipkowski with a great team there. So if you want to support the growth of this independent media platform, go to patreon.com slash Midas Touch, P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com slash M-E-I-D-A-S-T-O-U-C-H. And if you are a patron, I would just ask in the chat right now. Tell others about your experience if you think the exclusive content is worth it. After today's show, don't worry, we still got a lot more show. We will be doing an exclusive after show as we always do. That's an exclusive podcast offering for our Patreon members. And I want to focus that one on Lectern Gate and the videos we've been making about a lectern gate getting up a massive scandal taking place in Arkansas where Sarah Huckabee Sanders purportedly spent $19,000 on a lectern, which at most costs about $4,500, but it appears it is a fake lectern. But at the same time, an invoice was sent to her, and the taxpayers of the great state of Arkansas paid $19,000. Her friends, and one of them was

an insurrectionist, were partying with her in Paris. And so was the invoice for a lectern for a company that had nothing to do with lecterns actually a way to funnel money to her friends? And she got caught thanks to the great work of Matt Campbell, a lawyer out there who does Freedom of Information Act requests. We'll talk about that on our after show. That's patreon.com slash Midas Touch. We still have a lot of show left. What a powerful speech by President Biden. We'll be right back after this quick break. Oh, hey, when did you get here?

Let's take a quick break to talk about our next partner, Henson Shaving. Look, everyone knows how annoying cheap razors are. The cuts, the irritation, the frustration. And don't get me started with subscription razor services, the headaches that those can cause. That's why you got to meet Henson Shaving. Henson Shaving is a family-owned aerospace parts manufacturer that has made parts for the ISS. That's the International Space Station and Mars Rover. And now they're bringing precision engineering to your shaving experience. Razor blades, they're like diving boards. The longer the board, the more wobble, the more wobble, the more nicks, cuts, and scrapes.

A bad shave, it isn't a blade problem. It's an extension problem. By using aerospace-grade CNC machines, Henson makes metal razors that extend just.0013 inches, which is less than the thickness of human hair. That means a secure and stable blade with a vibration-free shave. It gets better. The razor has built-in channels to evacuate hair and cream, which makes clogging virtually impossible. Seriously, Henson Shaving wants the best razor, not the best razor business. That means no plastic, no subscriptions, no proprietary blades, and no obsolescence.

The Henson razor, it works with standard dual edge blades to give you that old school shave with the benefit of new school tech. Once you own the Henson razor, it's only about $3 to $5 per year to replace the blades. My first shave with the Henson razor was incredibly refreshing. The design is sleek and the durability is top notch. The Henson razor is truly much better than your run of the mill quote unquote traditional razor brand. And the affordability factor is absolutely game changing. No more wasting your money on expensive blades. With Henson Shaving, you get a year of blades for just $5.

Okay, so here's what you have to do. It's time to say no to subscriptions and yes to a razor that'll last you a lifetime. Visit hensonshaving.com slash Midas to pick the razor for you and use code Midas and you'll get two years worth of blades free with your razor. Just make sure to add them to your cart. That's 100 free blades when you head to h-e-n-s-o-n-s-h-a-v-i-n-g.com slash MIDAS and use code MIDAS. We all hate wasting food. Now nothing's

ever wasted thanks to Lomi. I have a Lomi and it's changed the way that I think about my food waste. Lomi transforms my trash into treasure at the push of a button. Lomi is a countertop electric composter that turns food scraps to plant food in four hours. There's no food rotting in my garbage

and smelling up my kitchen. Now, I only take the trash out on garbage day, plus no more leaky bags. I turn my waste into nutrient-rich Lomi Earth that I can feed to my plants, lawn, or garden instead of sending it to the landfill. I can help the environment and make my life easier. All my food scraps, plant clippings, and even those leftovers that I forgot in the back of the fridge, they go back into my garden, helping me grow more nutritious food at home. And now Lomi's new app lets me track my environmental impact, earn points for every cycle, and redeem freebies from Lomi and other great brands. I learned that food waste

makes up a huge portion of our personal carbon footprint. By reducing the amount of food that I send to a landfill, I'm helping to do my part for the planet. Now, whether you want to start making a positive environmental impact or just grow a beautiful garden, Lomi is perfect for you. Head to lomi.com slash Midas and use the promo code Midas to get up to $50 off your Lomi. That's $50 off when you head to l-o-m-i.com slash Midas and use promo code Midas at checkout. Thank you, Lomi, for sponsoring this. Welcome back. We are live on the Midas Touch podcast. I woke up this morning to some news I didn't expect to wake up to. Sidney Powell, one of the co-defendants in the George Arrico case against Donald Trump and 18 other co-defendants, pleading guilty.

And I had to just pinch myself and say, my dreaming, is this really going down? I was surprised. I was surprised to wake up to that guilty plea. And sure enough, it was going down. She is the second of the 19 total defendants in the Rico case being prosecuted by Fulton County District Attorney, Fonny Willis, to enter a guilty plea. And why don't we show you the moment it went down in court, one of the things that we're able to do here, because fortunately there is a camera here the same way there should be cameras in all courtrooms. We, the people, deserve transparency in our courtrooms, and we see the importance of it here. This is Sidney Powell entering a guilty plea earlier this morning in Fulton County Superior Court. Play the clip. All right, Ms. Powell, I just have a few questions for you. Do you understand the nature of the charges that have been reaccused and that you would be pleading guilty to today?

I do, sir. And you've heard all the rights that the state has gone through that you would waive by going forward with this plea. Do you still wish to waive those rights? I do. And are you pleading guilty today because you agree that there is a sufficient factual basis, that there are enough facts that support this plea of guilty? I do. Mr. Rafferty, are you satisfied your client is competent in understanding that the plea is voluntary and that there is a sufficient factual basis for entering this plea? Yes, Ross. I agree and find that there is a sufficient factual basis, and I find this plea of guilty to be knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligently entered.

There's been a request that this sentence be entered under the First Defender Act, and the court will approve that request, withhold adjudication. But I must notify you, Ms. Powell, that you are not allowed to withdraw your plea simply because you do not comply with the terms of the sentence. And the terms of that sentence would be as recommended by the parties. On count one, conspiracy to commit intentional interference with the performance of election duties. The sentence would be 12 months probation consecutive to each other and to count one for a total term of essentially six years probation, but we're going to translate that into months for the sentence sheet. Special conditions would include a $6,000 fine with $1,000 for each count, restitution to

be paid in the amount of $2,700 to the Secretary, Georgia Secretary of State's office. You are to have written a letter, which you've already satisfied. You're also to provide a recorded profit with the state, which you've already satisfied. You're to testify truthfully against any and all co-defendants in this matter at any upcoming proceedings. You are not to have any communication with any witness, any co-defendant, or any member of the media concerning the facts or circumstances of this case. And you need to provide all documents to the district attorney's office as requested and relevant to this case. So that went down this morning and you heard the judge go through the things that judges have to go through with a criminal defendant who enters a guilty plea.

She got six years of probation on six counts. There are misdemeanors, which some people are like, well, why would you bring it down to a misdemeanor? We'll talk about that in a moment. She must pay a $6,000 fine. And you may be saying, well, that's not a lot of money, but criminal cases aren't where big civil damages are. That's in civil cases. She must also testify truthfully against the other co-conspirators, including Donald Trump. She had to write an apology letter to the citizens of Georgia. She can't have contact with other co-conspirators. But one of the most important things that was said

by the judge is that she had already entered into a proffer session with the Fulton County District Attorney. That means she's already sat probably for several hours and maybe even more than 10 hours where Sidney Powell has went through every fact about all of the co-defendants under penalty of perjury that clearly provided sufficient support for the prosecution for her to get this deal. So I think that that is one of the more important things here. Now, obviously, if you look at the strategy here by Fulton County District Attorney Fawnie Willis from the outset, just think about the framing of this, right? Special counsel Jack Smith has unindicted co-conspirators like Sidney Powell, Giuliani Eastman. Special counsel Jack Smith in the federal case did not even indict Sidney Powell.

He was just more surgical. Let's focus just on Donald Trump. But think about what Fulton County District Attorney Fawnie Willis did. She went after the unindicted co-conspirators and now has gotten a guilty plea and a proffer that also can be used by Special Counsel Jack Smith. And ultimately here, if you're able to start getting proffer agreements with about a handful more, then clearly the message that Fannie Willis is sending is, make a deal with me now and you won't go to jail.

Make a deal with me now and I will be lenient on you. But you got to do it quick. You got to do it right away. And Sidney Powell showed that could be done. And with each progressive event and with each passing day, the deals don't look like this and the deals get progressively worse. And ultimately, and if Fulton County District Attorney Fawnie Willis pulls this off and pun intended, the jury is still out on that, but if she pulls it off and gets nine or 10 of these individuals or even more to testify against

Donald Trump and lines them all up, that will be one of the most impressive legal maneuvering and accomplishments I think that may have ever existed. Yeah. I'll put it in a Sidney Powell speak for a second, just so that she can understand that if she's watching, you know, Fonny Willis did not go full Kraken on you, right? Fonny Willis did not unleash the full Kraken or as Ben called before, the Kraken. I think he called it. But Fonny Willis, very methodical here. And like Ben said, you make a deal early, you're going to get a better deal than if you try to sit back and try to, the longer you wait, the worse this is going to get.

And this decision by Sidney Powell is so devastating for Donald Trump. Because if you remember, let's flashback for a second, okay? Let's flashback to 2020. Let's flashback to 2021. Crazy times, I know, but we're in crazy times. So we're used to it. Sidney Powell going on TV every single day, basically outlining her plot on live television, sometimes on very far right channels where she thought she was only

speaking to her MAGA people, but sometimes on reputable channels, just totally announcing her plan to overthrow our democracy. She was the chief person who put forth these lies about Hugo Chavez and getting involved in our elections. Hugo Chavez isn't even alive. That was all Sidney Powell. The release, the Kraken was all Sidney Powell. And she kept saying that, oh, we're going to unleash the Kraken now. It's going to happen later. Oh, all these people are going to go to jail. All the people who counted the votes are going to jail. All these Democrats, Biden, everybody, they're all going to jail. That's what she kept peddling every single night. She was as deep in this scheme as absolutely anybody involved. And she was in the room where it happened with Donald Trump

and has the goods on the specifics of the plan, the specifics of Donald Trump and the other co-conspirators' attempts to overthrow the government of the United States of America. That's why we need to understand how big of a get it is that Sidney Powell has flipped and that Sidney Powell has agreed to testify against Donald Trump and all the other co-conspirators. And you know what? Rather than just flashback in our memories, I want to go to some of these clips, Ben, because we have clips from November 2020. This is when Powell, I'm not sure if this is the first time she used the phrase, but it might've been. This is when Powell said that she was going to quote, release the Kraken. And she was going to, quote, release the Kraken and she was

going to put everyone in jail because she had this new evidence that Hugo Chavez stole the evidence from Trump. Here's from November 2020. I can hardly wait to put forth all the evidence we have collected on Dominion, starting with the fact it was created to produce altered voting results in Venezuela for Hugo Chavez and then shipped internationally to manipulate votes for purchase in other countries, including this one. It was funded by money from Venezuela and Cuba, and China has a role in it also. We have staggering statistical evidence. We have staggering testimony from witnesses, including one who was personally in briefings when all of this was to the crimes, and now you are going to spill the beans, Sidney Powell, on your co-cons wanted to make a special counsel, a special counsel to oversee. Yes, like Jack Smith, like special counsel Jack Smith.

Donald Trump wanted to make her, the Hugo Chavez Kraken lady, a special counsel to look into election fraud. That kook, that's who he wanted to put in charge. And he wanted Sidney Powell to run a scheme to lock up his political opponents. This is why Donald Trump, the idea of a second Trump presidency and this whole candidacy and everything that's going on with Trump, this is why it is so dangerous because I don't think enough people realize how close we were at the end of the Trump presidency to losing it all. Everything we heard President Biden speak about in that speech, everything we heard about American values, that's exactly what Donald Trump was fighting against.

That's what he was trying to destroy. That's what Donald Trump and Sidney Powell were trying to obliterate in those months after Donald Trump lost the election, frankly, before when they were plotting this overthrow of our democracy for the months prior to January 6th. So here's another clip just to show you. She kept going on TV. If you remember, she was next to Rudy Giuliani in that video where the hair dye was dripping down his face. What an insane few months she was next to Rudy in that time. And she spoke that day, but there was another moment in September, 2021, which is an important moment that was found and watched by our editor-in-chief of MidasTouch.com, Ron Filipkowski. And I'll say if not for Ron Filipkowski, I don't know if this

clip would have ever made it to light, but that's why Ron is so good. And that's why the work that he does with MidasTouch.com. By the way, check out MidasTouch.com for all the breaking news stories throughout the day. Make sure to check it out. We're so proud of our editorial team over there. He found this clip because he was watching some of these right-wing networks that Sidney Powell was going on at the time. And when these people go on these networks, these very right-wing networks that Sidney Powell was going on at the time. And when these people go on these networks, these very far-right networks, they often believe that they're only speaking to their base. They don't quite think about, oh, prosecutors are going to ultimately hear this. Other people are going to hear this outside of MAGA. So in September 2021, Sidney Powell went on this obscure right-wing podcast, and she explained exactly why Trump did not, did not want to stop the insurrection on January 6th.

She outlined the entire plan on this live podcast, her entire plan with Donald Trump to overthrow the United States government. And this has been ignored for a long, long time, this interview, but it's more important now than ever. And so here's about a minute of it. And I hope that prosecutors are watching this show. I hope that they see the articles that we're posting on MidasTouch.com because this is highly, highly incriminating for Sidney Powell and for Donald Trump. And now that she has flipped, it's more important than ever. Here's the clip. September 2021. Yes, we were filing a 12th Amendment constitutional challenge to the process that Congress was about to use under the Electoral Act provisions that simply don't jive with the 12th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

And Justice Alito was our circuit justice for that. Louie Gohmert was the plaintiff in our lawsuit. And we were suing the vice president to follow the 12th Amendment as opposed to the Electoral Count Act or Electoral College Act. So that was the main point. And Nancy Pelosi had finagled to file an amicus brief in it. There'd been inside goings on in Congress, whereby I believe it was Steve Scalise and McCarthy kept her from being an actual party. She wanted to work her way into the case of the party, but somehow politically that didn't happen. But so she got noticed when we made her filing because she wanted to file an amicus brief or had filed an amicus brief. And then, you know, everything broke loose and she had to really

speed up reconvening Congress to get the vote going before Justice Alito might have issued an injunction to stop it all, which is what should have happened. I mean, there it has been in black and white, outlining the plan and outlining the reason why Donald Trump sicked his mob of sycophants on the Capitol. It's why he refused to stop the action that was happening, because that was all part of the plan. It wasn't just, oh, look, we had a rally and the rally went wild. Oh, that's what was me. No, it was all intentional because her plan, what she just said on that tape a year later in September of 2021, a few months later, she said that she filed a 12th Amendment challenge to the process of counting the electoral ballots

and that Justice Alito was assigned to decide whether to issue an emergency injection to stop the certification of the election. That was the purpose. I just want to be clear. So the mob, the clearing of the Capitol, the interruption of the count, that was all by design because they wanted Alito to grant her that emergency injunction and stop counting the ballots. And she just said it on that show. She said what the plan was. And then she even made a comment in that if you picked it up, she said, everything then broke loose. Everything then broke loose,

meaning that people attacked the Capitol, meaning there was an insurrection. That was all part of Sidney Powell's plan. That was all part of Donald Trump's plan. And it's right there in her own words on video. And you just saw it right here. Now, Donald Trump tries to argue. She has no credibility. She's the Kraken lady, or as Ben says it, she's the Kraken lady. She's the Kraken lady. You can't trust her. Well, then you just go, well, you wanted to appoint her special counsel, true or not true. And so everything that she now will have said in the proffer will be attached to Donald Trump when he tries to attack her, which he will. She was his choice as a special counsel on this very issue. And so that's why it will have a devastating impact on Donald Trump. And frankly, I never thought, and lots of legal

experts and people who I know who know her, who know of her, they were shocked. I never thought Sidney Powell would enter a guilty plea. And she was, believe it or not, a former federal prosecutor. So I had a few former defense lawyers tell me, well, that's the federal prosecutor in here. That was the joke, which is you take the plea deal, right? You take it right away because she knew she would get a better deal. But nonetheless, it really is, in terms of strategizing here, in my view, the right move. We just are watching top-notch lawyering here. And the people who have brought these cases against Donald Trump at the civil level, the people who have sought indictments and have indictments returned by grand juries at the criminal level. I mean, these are just

some of the best and brightest lawyers out there. And I am so thoroughly impressed by it. I want to go from Georgia. I want to go to New York and the great state of New York where New York Attorney General Letitia James, she knows this case against Donald Trump light years beyond how Donald Trump and his lawyers know the case, their documents. It is so impressive to watch how New York Attorney General Letitia James has brought on these witnesses and how she's utilized these witnesses. Even a witness today, like a person named David McArdle. You don't know who David McArdle is. McArdle. McArdle.

Of course, McArdle. Of course, McGardle. So, McGardle was one of the appraisers who worked at Cushman and Wakefield who worked with Eric Trump. And there was a brilliant moment where the New York Attorney General team showed McGardle Eric Trump's deposition, where Eric acts like he was not involved in the appraisals at all. Then they went to McArdle and they said, based on your interactions with Eric Trump, is he telling the truth there that he was not involved in the appraisals? And McArdle had to say, no, that's not true. He was involved. I worked with him on the appraisals. And so she's building this brick

by brick by brick, right? And then she's going to call Eric Trump. Terrified. Mark the tape right here. Eric Trump is going to completely break down when he takes the stand, as is Don Jr., as is Donald Trump. I think Ivanka will probably do pretty decent, actually. But the Trump men are going to freaking crumble. And I've read their deposition testimonies. I've watched the deposition clips of them. They are not just liars. They're like the worst liars. And after all these things are assembled, then New York Attorney General Letitia James is going to show Judge Ngoron what these liars look like. I would not be shocked if they don't testify and if they invoke the fifth again, even though they really can't invoke the

fifth and they try to go, it's all a sham. It's a sham. This is a sham where they try to do some stunt to blow it up. It doesn't sound like them. To me, when Donald Trump is there, he's trying to create a stunt to trigger the judge or trigger New York attorney General to try to create some chaos. And he's out of his element. He's weak when he's there. He's scared when he's there. I'll talk a little bit more about the New York Attorney General case. Also, Special Counsel Jack Smith just filed amazing response in opposition to Donald Trump's claim of absolute presidential immunity. And Jack Smith just smacked that down brilliantly. We'll talk about that. And we'll talk about much more after we come back from our last quick break of the day. Let's face it. Cereal as an adult is bland and boring.

Well, that might've been true, but then Magic Spoon came in and totally reinvented your favorite childhood cereals to taste great, both each serving containing zero grams of sugar, 13 to 14 grams of protein, and four to five net grams of carbs per serving. It's a keto-friendly, gluten-free, grain-free, and soy-free way to relive those moments watching your favorite cartoons. Plus, it's 140 calories a serving. Magic Spoon took the magic in their cereal and transformed it into an on-the-go snack with the brand new treats. You can have a totally delicious high protein cereal bar for breakfast, dessert, and anytime in between. They're just like the marshmallow treats that you had as a kid,

but with only one gram of sugar and one to two grams of net carbs. And they're packed with 11 grams of protein per bar. The treats come in two flavors, marshmallow and chocolatey peanut butter. Whether you like sticking to the classics or trying something new, there's a flavor you'll love. The consistency, crunch, and flavor packed in is absolutely delicious. I eat mine every morning before digging into emails and then again

before my afternoon workout. It's perfectly convenient for anytime snacking. Head to magicspoon.com slash Midas to grab a custom bundle of cereal and try the magic for yourself. And don't forget to add their brand new marshmallow and chocolatey peanut butter treats. Be sure to use our promo code MIDAS at checkout to save $5 off your order. And Magic Spoon is so confident in their product, it's backed with a 100% happiness guarantee. So if you don't like it for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Remember, get your next delicious bowl of cereal at magicspoon.com slash Midas and use code Midas to save $5 off. Thank you, Magic Spoon,

for sponsoring this episode. Well, it's good to know that Jordy reads his emails. That was the big surprise. Yeah, I didn't know that either. I'm still waiting for my reply, Jay. Still waiting for the reply, Jordy. But magic spoon is like A+. I love my magic spoon. A++++. Immature. In the morning, New York Attorney General Letitia James gave a press conference yesterday. I want to show you. Here are the powerful words after Donald Trump,

again, did that stunt that we showed you where he yells at her and he screams and rants and raves. Just watch how New York Attorney General Letitia James handled it. Play the clip. He's called me venomous. He's called me disgraceful. He's called me radical. He's called me a racist. And this is only week three. The reality is, is that none of his behavior, which can best be described as performative, will change what's happening in the courtroom. The courtroom, as you know, where we have submitted evidence and the evidence is clear. And that is he inflated his statements of financial interests to enrich himself and his family. And nothing will change that. Not the attacks on me or anyone. At the end of the day, we are here to seek justice and we will

seek justice. And so I look forward to seeing Mr. Trump again. I understand that he will be returning next week for Michael Cohen. But we are here to enforce the law and nothing will change that. No attacks, no words. I will not give in. I will not give up. I will only serve justice and enforce the law. Thank you. Evidence. Evidence. Evidence. And that's what it's all about. And here at the Midas Touch Network on Legal AF, what's most important in our approach is following the evidence. That's why we take an unconventional approach, but I think it should be the convention, which is we read the court documents. We read the emails. We read the evidence. Because when I give you my opinion on an issue, I want you to know why and where it is rooted in. I don't just want to throw my hands around and tell you that I'm angry or I'm happy or whatever. I want to let you know, here's the document that I looked at and documents I looked at, and here's how I've formed the opinion, and you may disagree with the opinion, but let's agree that these are

the facts. These are the receipts. When you look at a statement of financial condition and Donald Trump is adding so-called presidential premiums, but then saying he isn't adding brand premiums because he's not calling them brand premiums. They're called presidential premiums. He's inflating the value of properties by 15% or 30% by adding presidential premiums. We look together and we see the notations on the spreadsheet. We hear from witnesses inside the Trump organization. We hear from the former controller of the Trump organization, the former CFO. We hear from someone like Patrick Burney, who's a current vice president. We look at what they are saying. And the same way Judge N'Goran, it's not that Judge N'Goran doesn't like Donald Trump because his name is Trump. Judge N'Goran looks at the undisputed evidence. So it was Donald Trump

who said the valuation of Mar-a-Lago was under $30 million so that Donald Trump could pay less taxes. It was Donald Trump who encumbered the Mar-a-Lago property with various historical easements and other restrictions that make it so its value is less than the adjacent residential properties. But even if you gave the most inflated residential property valuation for Mar-a-Lago, it is nowhere near $750 million. But that's not what Donald Trump even says when he gives these press conferences, these performative theatrical pieces, as New York Attorney General Letitia James says. He goes, it was a billion. It was a billion five. It was probably more than a billion five. The Saudis will pay me anything for it.

That's just not the way things are supposed to be done. And I've coined the term MAGA math before or MAGA appraisals, you know, because I'll get people who go, well, everybody knows that the market value is more than what the appraised value is for purposes of the property tax, okay, sure, I'll accept your premise. It's not 3,000 to 5,000% more. Don't try to tell me that that's normally what happens. Don't tell me that everybody else is putting presidential premiums on their property and adding brand value and then claiming they are not. That's your magna math. Again, here's the reality though. I'll accept your argument that there could be higher market values than appraised values. You got me there. It's not like you're tricking me. I agree with that premise that that happens from time to time. But again, I'm also looking at statements made by Donald Trump at what he valued the property at,

his valuation of the property. And again, it's not a 3,000 to 5,000% difference. And then you can't tell me that objective facts are wrong. And Donald Trump does this with all of his properties. The triplex in New York is 10,000 square feet. It's not 30,000 square feet. He lies and says it's 30,000 square feet. If you go to Aberdeen and the golf- The presidential premium then adds on 20,000 square feet, I think. If you go to Aberdeen in Scotland, where he has a golf course, it is zoned for a certain amount of units. And he just makes up a fake number that's not what it's zoned for to inflate the value. You can look at all of his properties and that's what happens. That's what I mean. That shouldn't be a democratic thing or a political

party thing. That's just the facts. Going back to what we were talking about at the outset of this show, the facts shouldn't be partisan. Like let's just focus on what facts are and what our objective reality is. I mentioned special counsel, Jack Smith filed a powerful opposition to Donald Trump's request for absolute immunity in the Washington DC case. One of the most powerful lines was basically mocking Donald Trump when Trump tried to act like his behavior on January 6th was just like Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address and George Washington's farewell address. That's actually what Donald Trump argued in his motion to dismiss on absolute immunity. And Jack Smith just skewered that argument and said, no, these things are not alike. I'll do a longer hot take on that in a little bit.

But speaking of evidence, I want to talk about what went down in Congress. And Brett, I can't believe that this is real life. But after all that's transpired over the past 48 hours, and frankly, going back with Kevin McCarthy, the most spineless speaker, we went from spineless to speakerless. And in their infinite wisdom, despite all of the Republicans saying they will not be, or a group of so-called moderates saying they won't vote for Jim Jordan, the decision out of all of it was not to provide a temporary speaker so they can open up the house, not try to work with Democrats. And it wouldn't even be like Akeem Jeffries becoming speaker, even though I think that would be great, but that's not what was out on the table. Just let's work on a few maiden things together, and then you can go about and do your other

Republican stuff. And their decision was, let's do another vote. Brett, what's going on with Jim Jordan? Well, I think you summed it up best when you were speaking about Trump, Ben. What's going on with Jim Jordan and what's going on with these Republicans? MAGA math. MAGA math. We are seeing it at play. They clearly either don't know how to count or they don't care about counting. You have Kevin McCarthy, who clearly does not know how to count because he wouldn't have allowed a vote to go forward with his expulsion. But Kevin McCarthy, a few days ago, going, I predict Jim Jordan will be speaker tomorrow. And obviously, days and days and days have passed.

And that has not happened. So, like Ben said, what are they going to do? They lost. Jim Jordan lost the first vote. He lost the second vote by even more with 22 defectors. There are all these reports today of more people, more Republicans saying, I am never voting for Jim Jordan. So what do they do? They say, we better get a vote on the books for tomorrow, better get a vote. So there is a vote as of now, and this is a fast moving situation. And I feel like there are updates literally every single minute on this. So I will say as of the recording right now, while we are live, just to save myself in case this changes in two minutes, they are expected to vote on the next speaker tomorrow. That's Friday. If you're listening on audio, that's today, Friday at 10 a.m. Eastern. We've already heard reports that the holdouts are not at all planning

to go to Team Jordan. And so they've rejected all these plans. They rejected all these fixes. They're not going to Jordan. And the entire United States Congress, as a result, just remains deadlocked, just remains in absolute limbo because of these Republicans that refuse to put the country over party. You had Jim Jordan running around the halls of Congress the other day going, no one in our Congress wants to see a coalition government with the Democrats. No one wants to see us work with the Democrats. It's like, grow up, okay? Could you grow up for a second and actually learn how to govern, actually learn how to work with the Democrat. It's like, grow up. Could you grow up for a second and actually learn how to govern, actually learn how to work with the other side? You don't have a big majority at all,

and you don't control the Senate, and you don't occupy the presidency. So maybe, just maybe, when you find yourself in this situations, maybe you should take the olive branch offered by Hakeem Jeffries and the Democrats to save you again. They're constantly saving your ass every single time this happens. Maybe take that olive branch and actually do something for the betterment of the American people and not for your political hopes. It's insane even that Jim Jordan, and I encourage everybody, if you haven't seen it, look up

Jim Jordan's district on Google Images or Bing haven't seen it, look up Jim Jordan's district on Google Images or Bing Images or whatever, wherever you find your images. Look at the shape of it. Look at how it's gerrymandered, that this individual who is gerrymandered into power that couldn't win a fair election is the guy that they want to put in this position of power, a guy who covered up sexual abuse, a guy who was involved in the January 6th insurrection. This is the individual out of all the people that they have. This is the one they decided, that's our guy. That's our guy. So Jordan today was trying to convince these holdouts. There are 22 holdouts and there are more to come. One of the things that I even heard through reporting was that there is a plan set up by these anti-Jordan Republicans to peel off the votes as each round goes on to make a statement to show that Jordan is continuing to lose support.

This is how, like, demented these Republicans are. They go, OK, so you two back out in the next round. Then five more people will back out. Like. This is an actual plan that they have. So you have Jordan frantically making- Can you call him Jim Jordan just because I'm going to continue to associate him with our younger brother, Jordy, and then it makes me- I'll do my best, but it's the difference between Jordy and Jordan. We can make that distinction. Okay. Oh, God. That's a good distinction. Good distinction. So Jim Jordan today frantically calling up all of these members of Congress, these GOP defectors. And from all the reports, they go, decline, decline, decline. They refuse to pick up for him.

They refuse to pick up for Jim Jordan. He tries to go for their office. Many of them don't even let him in their offices. And finally, he is able to actually speak to some of these holdouts. And the press interviewed all the holdouts after Jim Jordan left the room. And what did they say? No, we're not changing our minds. Basically, screw that guy. And what's been happening underneath it all are these threats. There are these threats going against all of these Republican holdouts by these MAGA goons across the country. And as we were saying at the very top of this episode, these MAGA Republicans are seeing what it's like to be on the receiving end of the threats from their own people. This is often what they unleash on others. I mean, we at Midas Touch,

we probably get messages like this almost every day. That was the thing. You're going to show these messages, I'm sure. But the messages that they get look just like the emails I get from all these MAGA people and that you get where they curse you out. And it's all of these, I don't want to say the type of messages we get every day, but now they're getting it because that's their incentive structure to rile these people up. Yeah, 100%. Then they're not only going to the congressmen themselves, they're going to the wives. One congressman said that they had to send a sheriff with their kid to school today to protect them from the threats.

I heard some of the voice. I don't want to play them here, but I heard some of the voicemails that they did play on CNN. I mean, they are horrible. Like I said, we get them like all the time. I'm used to them. The people all sound exactly the same as well every time we get the messages. But here, for example, are some of the messages that were sent to the wives here. And I just want to get it right.

This is who put this in, Ben? Don Bacon. Congressman Bacon. Congressman Bacon. So this is one of the messages that his wife got. Talk to your husband and tell him to step up and be a leader and help the Republican Party get a speaker. There's too much going on in the world. You guys take five steps forward and turn around and 20 steps backwards.

No wonder our party always gets getting screwed. Why is your husband causing chaos by not supporting Jim Jordan? I thought he was a team player. And then she wrote, who is this? Oh, now you have nothing to say. Your husband will not hold any political office again. What a disappoint and failure he is. And then the wife wrote, he has more courage than you. You won't put your name to your statements. And that's honestly like the tamest of the messages and of the voicemails and everything. Where would these MAGA supporters learn to attack not just the politicians who don't support the MAGA agenda, but family members and kids all become fair game? Where would they learn that? Who does that every day?

Oh, their cult leader, Donald Trump. They're built in that image of the stochastic terrorism. And that's what we're talking about, why Republicans are in this place, because their base are the types of people who are sending these types of text messages and think that that's okay. They're the ones who are vocal. That's not a productive way to engage as adults. No. That's how dictatorships operate or come to power. That's not how we operate in a healthy democracy. But this is what this MAGA Republican Party has turned this country into, attacking family members, wives, daughters, sons. I mean, it's absolutely sick what we are seeing. And to top it off, they're so incredibly unserious, unserious and dangerous. I just want to show you a few clips that I saw

today while this was all going on. So here's Marjorie Taylor Greene. And you know why she says the Republican conference is broken? You know why the Republicans are having problems? It's because they want to work with Democrats. This is actually her line right here. Listen to this. And this conference is broken because Republicans work with Democrats. This is actually her line right here. Listen to this. And this conference is broken because Republicans worked with Democrats and put us here. So what's required for serious people that want to do their job is people need to put their egos down. Those that put us in this position need to ask forgiveness. Forgiveness needs to be given. People need to be humble and we need to unite behind the speaker.

And that's what our Congress needs to do now. Our country needs us to do this. And I do not think this is a plan for us to get. Okay. And if you notice, everything that Marjorie Taylor Greene says there is pure and utter projection. We need to put ego aside. We need to come together and pick a speaker. We have to be serious people. And you are the biggest clown in Congress. Do you listen to yourself ever?

Here's Matt Gaetz. Matt Gaetz, remember, who initiated all this chaos, right? Matt Gaetz is outraged by the idea that they would empower the temporary speaker, Patrick McHenry, to be just a temporary speaker for 30 days or 45 days or whatever while they worked us out. And Matt Gaetz's comments, you're going to roll your eyes so far to the back of your head that they may get stuck there. So just disclaimer on this video. He goes, I'm against speaker light, talking about the temporary speaker, just like I am against Bud Light. Something said in the halls of Congress during this today.

I think that I'm against speaker light. I'm against Bud Light. I believe it is a constitutional desecration to not elect a speaker of the House. We need to stay here until we elect a speaker. And if someone can't get the votes, we need to stay here until we elect a speaker. And if someone can't get the votes, we need to go on to the next person. But twisting and torturing the Constitution to empower a temporary speaker is having a speaker light that is not constitutionally contemplated, is deeply infirm, and I will do everything possible to stop it. And by the way, that wasn't like a one-off line. I heard him say that multiple times throughout the

day. I even saw at some point he said it to a CNN reporter or an MSNBC reporter, I forget, and they literally rolled his own party's chaos on the Democrats. This is all the Democrats' fault, Kevin McCarthy says, the weakest speaker of the House in history. Look, every single Democrat made a choice to bring chaos. Every single Democrat decided that this was the best way forward. What's interesting, though, is the leadership of Democrats had said something different the entire time. I've been here since Boehner. So I guess they changed their mind. They were really mad about your comments the Sunday after you kept the government open.

Oh, really? So they were mad I kept government open? Well, now it's a couple weeks later. Well, no, let's... You blamed them. It's a couple weeks later. Oh, okay. That's a great question.

So let's walk through that since people have thin skin, okay? So I put a bill on the floor to keep government open, and they moved to adjourn. Then they moved to delay, and then they took a magic minute. But they were upset that I acknowledged they did that? Hmm. I wonder if they should have this job if that upsets them. What do you think they say about me? I mean, the guy's unbelievable and there's so much projection coming from there. And remember, this is the party that likes to use the term about themselves. They like to call themselves, we're the party of personal responsibility, right? Pick yourself up from your own bootstraps, take responsibility for your own actions. And what do they do? They cause chaos,

they cause destruction, they destroy, frankly, everything they touch. And then they have the audacity to blame the only serious people in the room who are actually trying to help, who are actually trying to be like normal human beings. And even Republican Representative Jim Banks was like, you know what, with all this, we don't even deserve the majority. We don't deserve it. There's nothing I've ever wanted more in this Congress than for Jim Jordan to be the Speaker of the House. He is the fighter that we need for our country. And what they're doing right now is walking the Republicans off the plank. We don't deserve the majority if we go along with a plan to give the Democrats control over the House of Representatives. It's a giant betrayal to our Republican voters. I mean, it's a giant betrayal to Americans, frankly, what you're doing. Stop thinking about Republican voters. Stop thinking about your base. Stop trying to gaslight Americans and say comments like Jim Jordan's the most popular politician in America. People hate Jim Jordan. Jim Jordan's a creep. Jim Jordan covers up sexual abuse.

Jim Jordan is an insurrectionist and you are trying to hoist this guy up. It's ridiculous and nobody should accept it and nobody should be taking these people seriously. I mean, we should take their consequences of their actions seriously, but we should never take them at their word because these are very disingenuous people. And now they're going to hold this vote 10 a.m. tomorrow. They're saying they already know it's not going to work. So they're already saying, and we'll probably be here voting all weekend. We're hearing that the staff of these Congress people are getting really angry as well because they're having to spend a lot of time away from their families working through all of this chaos. A literal fight broke out today. A fight broke out within the closed

door meeting. And do you remember how this all started back in the day? Not so long ago in January when Kevin McCarthy was after 15 rounds elected speaker. Remember that whole saga? Remember that moment where there was a physical altercation on the floor and somebody's hand wrapped around one of the Republicans on the floor? Well, there was another fight today that broke out in this closed-door meeting where Kevin McCarthy screamed at Matt Gaetz to sit down as Matt Gaetz tried to approach the microphones. And Representative Bost almost lunged at him in the process. At one gate, Gates was told to sit down and everyone is emotional and everyone was cursing at each other. And they were saying, this is all your fault, Matt Gates. This is all your fault. I mean, they are like toddlers. This is why they had to confiscate the phones from these closed-door meetings because they don't

want stuff like this getting out there. And it's just so insane to see all of this going on. Finally, I'll just show you, I'll show you Jim Jordan's statement when he decided, you know what? I'm going to run again. Even though I'm going to lose, I'm going to run. I'm going to run. Here's Jim Jordan after learning that nobody likes him. Get the hint. They're just not that into you, Jim, okay? Get the hint. This is what Jim Jordan had to say. I'll just say this. We made the, we made the pitch to members on the resolution as a way to lower the temperature and get back to work. We decided that wasn't where we're going to go. I'm still running for speaker and I plan to go to the floor and get the votes and win this race. But I want to go talk with a few of my

colleagues. Particularly, I want to talk with the 20 individuals who voted against me so that we can move forward and begin to work for the American people. What he's trying to do is, this is all he's done his whole life, is bully people and try to break the will of people the way he broke the will and destroyed the lives of sexual abuse survivors. is somebody who uses authoritarian tactics to harm and destroy people's life by force. He's someone without morals. He's someone without decency. He is someone who is truly despicable and putrid based on his conduct and based on his behavior. And folks, is it any surprise that it was that group of people who contributed to $7.8 trillion of our deficit? And those MAGA Republican sociopaths who are the reason for $7.8 trillion added to our deficit. They want to tell you, they want to lecture you, they want to magasplain to you about what fiscal conservatism is. These individuals

that you're watching want to magasplain to you how you need to live your life. These are the people who are taking away your freedoms. These are the mag-explainers who are lecturing you on who you are allowed to marry and love. They are lecturing women and more than that, just straight out taking away women's reproductive rights. That crew right there, who doesn't even have the competence to pick their own leader while they are the majority, these are the magasplainers who want to tell us how to live our lives. It needs to just be expressed clearly like that because that's the situation that we are in. Going back to what we saw at the outset of this episode, I think President Biden needs to do more of that. I think he needs to speak more to the

American people like that. The image that's created of him by propagandists from right-wing media, which permeates into other media, can be rebutted with the data, with the facts, with the evidence. People can recognize that all this MAGA propaganda is utter BS when you look at the undisputed video and how President Biden behaves, his instincts, and how he addresses problems and how he addresses issues. I also think it is incumbent upon Democrats in the House of Representatives and the Senate, who I think have become much better messengers. I don't think they are bad messengers, but they can't just be good messengers in committee hearings where they are exposing MAGA Republican hypocrisy based on the absurdity of the hearings. Right. Their platform can't just be reactive, although they are great, the Democrats, in those committee hearings.

So while MAGA Republicans are engaged in this behavior, maybe Democrats hold a press conference on Jared Kushner, right? Maybe the Democrats hold a press conference on what Mike Pompeo did with the Taliban. Maybe Democrats start holding press conferences and getting their message out and going on the offense. Maybe Democrats then hold some hearings. Who cares if it's not a formal hearing? Just go out there, hold a press conference on the threat to women, on the threat to the LGBTQ plus community, on the threat to seniors. Just hold the hearings. The cameras will come.

We've got great democratic messengers. Just hold the hearings, bring your evidence, and just start doing it. Just start doing it. That's what I would do if I was them. And I think that's what they should be doing right now. Then they can talk about issues like infrastructure and jobs and all of those things every single day. That's going to be our focus here at the Midas Touch Network because I don't believe that these issues are democratic issues or Republican issues or independent issues. Going back to what we said at the outset,

I believe these are fundamentally American issues. Jobs, better paying jobs, better working conditions, infrastructure, making sure that we're not just creating jobs for today, but jobs for tomorrow. That is critical. I want to focus on education. I want to make sure we protect Social Security and Medicare. I want to make sure we're protecting seniors. I want to make sure that we do everything possible to make sure our veterans know how proud we are of them and do everything for them, unflinchingly for our veterans. I want to make sure that we protect equality here. I want to make sure that women have the right over their own reproductive rights and not be taken away by people like Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz and others. I want to make sure that people have their freedoms protected and our books are not burned by MAGA Republicans. That is the America I want.

And that is an America of normalcy, of compassion, a vision of America that's unapologetically pro democracy as it should. This is a rejection of chaos and embracing what America should be all about. And I want to thank each and every one of you for being a part of this community. I want to mention this, and this is very, very, very important, because this community can be activated to do something very, very special. But time is of the essence. There is a vote taking place in Virginia very, very soon. It's an off year where just the Senate and the Virginia House are up for reelection. Glenn Youngkin, a MAGA Republican in sheep's

clothing, if you will, with his Patagonia-style vests, and I like Patagonia, so I'm sorry for linking that with Glenn Youngkin, is trying to create MAGA-lite and bring these ideas of removing women's reproductive rights, of imposing MAGA policies, but with a lighter touch, they believe. And because it's an off-year election in Virginia, not a lot of people are paying attention. And so the Republican Party in Virginia is relying on the apathy of the voters. And from a lot of the data I've seen, Democrats need to wake up immediately. Pro-democracy people need to wake up immediately in Virginia. So if you're watching this and you are in Virginia, I am asking you to please, please, please get out the word about the election that's coming up in Virginia. We have about 10 days to get out that message.

If you know people in Virginia, get out that message. If you have any ability to contribute and help our democracy right now in Virginia, we need your help there for the sake of our democracy. Glenn Youngkin views this as a two-step. First, he's going to do what he's doing in 2023 here on an off year, and then he's going to try to use that to create this fall momentum going into 2024. That's their plan. I just want to let you know. Because it's this off year and there's not a lot of enthusiasm, there should be. We need to remind everybody in Virginia. So please, please, please.

This is one of the most watched podcast video shows on YouTube. You now have the power. So please help out Virginia. I ask you to do that. I'd also ask you to go to patreon.com slash Midas Touch as soon as this ends. As I mentioned, we are not funded by outside investors. And still, this channel, thanks to your support, has grown bigger on digital than Fox or CNN. Think about that. The power of this community that you all started. I don't want to have outside investors. I wanted this to be community-driven.

This experiment is working. I'd ask for your help, if you can, to go to patreon.com slash Midas Touch. Make sure you spell Midas Touch correctly if you are not already a member. P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash M-E-I-D-A-S-T-O-U-C-H. You see it right there when the show ends. Go there. If you also want to become a member of our YouTube, which is different than our Patreon, that unlocks the emojis and you could buy memberships for other people. You see that dollar sign on the bottom of our YouTube. You can click that right now and you could buy other people memberships as well. That unlocks the emojis. Patreon.com slash Midas Touch. That was different. That's where we do the exclusive after show. And we will be announcing when our live

show will, our live Zoom meeting will take place where you can meet me and my brothers. We'll be announcing that shortly. So I look forward to meeting you there. And I'd ask all of our patrons to put in the chat below if you think it's worth it for people to join, if people are considering, should I join patreon.com slash Midas Touch or not? Finally, I just want to thank all of you who have built this unapologetically pro-democracy community. Thank you so, so much. We are so grateful for you. Thank you to our pro-democracy sponsors. Those products are in the descriptions below. We will continue our live coverage in the morning of this MAGA Republican speaker debacle.

And it was wonderful to be a part of history with you all today as we watch President Biden's historic speech together. See you next time on the Midas Touch podcast. Shout out to the Midas Mighty. At Midas Touch, we are unapologetically pro-democracy, and we demand justice and accountability. That's why we're spreading our message to convict45. That's right. Gear up right now with your convict45 tees and pins at store.midastouch.com. That's store.midastouch.com.