The MeidasTouch Podcast - Trump Indictment Watch and Biden OUTSMARTS McCarthy and MAGA

Episode Date: May 30, 2023

President Biden outmaneuvers Kevin McCarthy to secure a landmark deal to raise the debt ceiling, Jack Smith inches closer to charging decisions in the stolen documents case, Trump and DeSantis support...ers are eating each other alive, DeSantis’ latest remarks show once again that he is unfit for the presidency, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is impeached and more! Ben, Brett and Jordy discuss on this episode of the MeidasTouch Podcast. DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS: AG1: Visit https://athleticgreens.com/meidas and get a free year supply of Vitamin D and 5 free travel packs with your order. Magic Spoon: Head to https://magicspoon.com/meidas and use code ‘MEIDAS’ at checkout to save $5 off your order. Shop Meidas Merch at: https://store.meidastouch.com Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/meidastouch Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 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 The Tony Michaels Podcast: https://pod.link/1561049560 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:01:54 First, President Biden outmaneuvered and out-negotiated the MAGA Republicans and struck a historic deal in principle with Kevin McCarthy to raise the debt ceiling. Is this deal perfect? No, but it keeps all of President Joe Biden's major priorities that help hardworking Americans and it allows our economy to function and to keep on growing. Also, MAGA Republicans are livid at this deal. That's all you need to know. So what happens next? We will break it down here. Next up, we've got special counsel, Jack Smith, wrapping up his charging decisions. We're learning in connection with the ongoing criminal investigations into
Starting point is 00:02:41 Donald Trump's theft of thousands of government records. Also, Trump's attorneys are dropping like flies. And we all know what MAGA stands for, make attorneys, get attorneys. MAGA Republican Ken Paxton probably needs multiple attorneys. He was impeached this weekend by the Texas Republican-controlled House of Representatives, which also ignored the social media ranting and whining of Donald Trump and Kerry Lake and Marjorie Taylor Greene and the rest of that MAGA criminal cartel telling them not to impeach their criminal buddy. Next up, a trial before the Texas Senate where Ken Paxton's wife, Angela Paxton, interestingly enough, is a state senator. And do you know, this is a weird fact, the song that she sings all the time, like she's known for just walking around and singing the song where she goes, I'm a pistol packing mama
Starting point is 00:03:51 whose husband sued Obama. I'm a pistol packing mama whose husband sued Obama. Yes, I am. That's what she ran on. Well, actually, you're the wife of an impeached cheating husband who covered up his affair by getting his mistress a job for a real estate developer by accepting bribes. Big yikes. Ron DeSantis continues to try to out fascist Donald Trump. His entire campaign over this past weekend has been focused on, this is his main issue. He will destroy the left. He will crush them. He will crush the woke. Doesn't say anything about how he's going to help the people. And his new thing too, is he's giving these press conferences in front of like
Starting point is 00:04:38 ships and like military equipment. He is a total, total clown. This is the Midas Touch podcast. And on this Memorial Day, we'd like to take this opportunity, of course, to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Brett and Jordy, how are you doing today? It's an important day for our country, Memorial Day. And I think it's important that we do reflect on the brave men and women in the armed forces who gave the ultimate sacrifice on this day. It really makes you think a lot about the meaning of patriotism, in my opinion, and the meaning of what it means to truly love your country. And in watching these battles that we've seen in the past few days between Democrats and Republicans over the debt ceiling, in watching the messaging that we see come from people like President Biden, and the messaging contrasted with that of which we're seeing from people like Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump and these other MAGA Republicans, it really shows you that they are really just
Starting point is 00:05:47 working for two almost entirely different countries. And you see President Biden taking this perspective that he's supposed to, that he is a president for all people in the country, while you see these MAGA Republicans, you see Ron DeSantis, you see Donald Trump trying to further divide the country, further drive a wedge between the country, and really try to make one, even more than half of the country, the enemy, which I think is so dangerous and speaks to their authoritarian tendencies. So I'm excited to show, you know, I think on this show a lot, we show these contrasts, these contrasts in leadership, these contrasts in messaging. So I'm excited to
Starting point is 00:06:30 get into it. I hope everybody, if you had a long weekend, has been able to enjoy the long weekend. I know it's been quite the busy year. I cannot believe that it's Memorial Day just in general. I cannot believe that it is May 29th. How crazy is that? But always good to be here with the brothers. You know, we don't take a break here on the Midas Touch Network. Jordy, how you doing? I'm doing well, B. You just said that and put that also perfectly. So I'm going to comment on Ben singing in that intro. Ben, I thought Brett was the vocalist of the brothers. That was really impressive. You had a beat, you had rhythm. That was some good country, Ben. Well, I appreciate it. Not the greatest song in the world to display my talents there. Very true.
Starting point is 00:07:16 Speaking on that theme, Brett, that is what she ran her campaign on. She ran the campaign that she's a pistol-packing mama whose husband sued Obama. And that was the message, not here's what I'm doing for the people. Here's what we're fighting for. Here's what I'm delivering. And as we talk about the debt ceiling negotiation, one of the key things was President Biden was fighting to preserve and to protect things that benefit hardworking Americans. And the only issues where Kevin McCarthy and MAGA Republicans were focused on was how do we screw over the most vulnerable who have no one to really fight for them? And also just how do we screw over the hardworking Americans? Look, if they were going to be serious about these conversations, right? Maybe the first area I would be like, you know what? Giving tax write-offs to billionaires for their yachts and for their private jets. Maybe we start there. Maybe if we want to figure out
Starting point is 00:08:35 how we can bring more revenue into our treasury, maybe we start focusing on things like that. Maybe we close the loopholes in our tax system so that billionaires simply pay their fair share. How about we start with the baseline that they pay the fair share? It's not even that they're saying, oh, they shouldn't pay more. Their fight, the MAGA Republicans, is that billionaires should not pay their fair share. They should use all the loopholes in the world that they could avail themselves of, which you can't, which hardworking Americans can't. And that should be protected. Like what? And where the MAGA Republicans want to focus on and what they're high-fiving each other, even though it's definitely
Starting point is 00:09:25 not a victory, because as we go through what this ultimate deal was, they're like, we've increased the work requirements for the SNAP program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, from 49 to 54. And they're like high-fiving each other. I mean, President Biden did something brilliant there, because what he realized is that the most vulnerable within that age group are likely going to be veterans and individuals who are homeless, right? So what Biden did was to capture that same group that could potentially be harmed there. He expanded the eligibility of these programs to homeless individuals and to veterans who never before were able to get it so easily. So it's actually an expansion of the program, but it allows Kevin McCarthy to go
Starting point is 00:10:14 high five his base and say they screwed over poor people. Like I just, yeah, that's what they consider. That's what they consider a W. I mean, it reminds me of when we literally saw Ted Cruz and the Republicans fist bump each other after voting down to the PACT Act in the Senate. I mean, they've done it literally. So it's no surprise that they're now doing it figuratively over this bill right here for the debt ceiling. But I think what we saw throughout this process was we saw Kevin McCarthy put on a whole lot of false bravado. He put on this whole kind of strong positioning where he wasn't going to cave an inch and he was going to cut all these programs. And this was going to be the one opportunity where he was going to cut all these programs. And this was going to be the one opportunity where he
Starting point is 00:11:05 was going to single-handedly torpedo the entire Biden agenda with massive cuts to government spending, massive cuts to Biden's efforts to fund the IRS, massive cuts to Biden's environmental efforts, massive cuts to Biden's efforts to help those most vulnerable in the country. First off, once again, let's go back. Let's just think about the things that they were hoping to do. I mean, that's pretty messed up. But Kevin promised his people that he was going to do all that and more. He set these ridiculously high expectations for his side, and he could not deliver on any of them. He was not able to deliver on them at all. He set the bar so high that truly, unless he led our country into catastrophic default on the debt and completely destroyed the entire global economy, I don't think any of the people who support him, I don't think any of
Starting point is 00:12:07 those MAGA Republicans would have been happy any other way unless he let the entire economy explode. So he gave himself these impossible expectations going into this whole process that he inevitably could not live up to. And what did he get at the end of all of it? He got honestly less, I would say, than he would have even got if he just waited till the normal appropriations process. He played this so incorrectly. And really, I mean, I know Biden doesn't want to say this because Biden is tactful and Biden wants to make sure this thing gets over the finish line. But Kevin McCarthy kind of got his ass handed to him here. I'll say it. It's our show. We're talking with our people. I mean, this was overall a bad look for Kevin McCarthy to put up such a
Starting point is 00:12:55 fight and ultimately just fold. He beclowned himself. He beclowned the House Republicans in Congress. It was really just a bad look. It showed how misguided their priorities are. And at the end of the day, the Biden agenda that actually helps Americans is fully protected. And we actually got an expansion of some other key programs, which I thought was actually kind of a brilliant thing at the end of the day. So you go into what's the bad here, right? I mean, look, when people watch the Midas Touch Network, they know that they are getting the good, the bad, and the ugly. So rather than do all the high-fiving first, let's talk about what the bad
Starting point is 00:13:36 is here, right? And if you were to look at it objectively, you would say for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is critical for some of the most vulnerable people in our country. The work requirements for SNAP under this deal went from the age 49 to 54. But as I stated, President Biden was actually able to negotiate an overall expansion of SNAP, reducing the overall number of vulnerable people of all ages subject to SNAP's time limits. So actually a win there. The other thing, if you were going to say, well, this is what's being reported as bad. I've seen these articles. Progressives are pissed about this deal. I don't know who's pushing that narrative or who's giving some of the false information. But one of the things I
Starting point is 00:14:25 see there is, well, student loan debt collection is going to start taking place within 60 days of the bill coming into law. By the way, that was going to happen anyway. And let's be clear, President Biden put forward the student debt relief program to extinguish student loan debt for millions and millions of borrowers. The Republicans challenged that. That is currently before the United States Supreme Court. This deal does not change what Biden put forward and what the Republicans have challenged. What the deal says is what was going to happen anyway. As the coronavirus emergency powers have been revoked, as we've established through law, maybe not through actuality, but through the lawmaking
Starting point is 00:15:21 process that we're out of a pandemic emergency situation, the debt collection was going to take place within about 60 days of June anyway. So there isn't any change there from what was actually going to happen. I know Republicans are high fiving that. Look, at some point, the student debt collections are going to start again. It has to start again at some point, and it's been deferred for a significant period of time. But let's not forget that Biden put forward the plan to extinguish the debt. All of the Republicans challenged that. That's still at the Supreme Court. If Biden prevails in the Supreme Court, all that debt will still be extinguished up to the $10,000 or $20,000, depending on your specific circumstance.
Starting point is 00:16:10 Jordy. Ben, I just wanted to say, when we were talking about Kevin McCarthy before, I mean, it's just such a development of, and representation, I should say, actually, of these MAGA Republicans. Just, Brett, I'll show no substance. I'm going to talk this big game. And then when push comes to shove, I'm going to be shoved over a little bit here in will of people who actually want to dig deep and do the work, i.e. President Biden and the Democrats. So I started with the bad. Let me tell you about the good, because there's a lot of good here. The deal protects all of President Biden's legislative accomplishments, including the bipartisan infrastructure law, the Chips and Science Act, the PACT Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, which is the most aggressive action in our history to tackle the climate crisis, investment in environmental
Starting point is 00:16:54 justice, and creates millions of clean energy manufacturing jobs as part of this negotiation. President Biden beat back cuts to Medicaid that would have put health coverage at risk for over 21 million people. It did. It still protected the overall student debt relief plan, which is currently before the United States Supreme Court. McCarthy asked for a 22% reduction in non-defense discretionary spending. That would have been a significant cut of government programs. He got no reduction at all. Instead, spending will remain at current levels. This deal is also for two years, meaning that we won't have to revisit this as we head into the 2024 election. And this is what happened over the weekend. A reporter asked President Biden
Starting point is 00:17:45 during a press conference we covered live here on the Midas Touch Network, what do you say to members of your own party who say you made too many concessions in the deal? Play this video clip. Mr. President, what do you say to members of your own party who say you made too many concessions in this deal they'll find i didn't and this was president biden from he's like you'll find i did it so good this is from president biden from earlier in the day where he's like you know i i hear a lot of people saying like why are why am i not out there spiking the football and celebrating right now here play this clip i remember the members i spoke to mccon. I spoke to a whole bunch of people. And it feels good. We'll see when the vote starts. And look, one of the things that I
Starting point is 00:18:33 hear some of you guys saying is, why didn't Biden say what a good deal it is? Why would Biden be saying what a good deal is before the vote? You think that's going to help me get a pass? No. That's why you guys don't bargain very well. Anyway. Truly a master negotiator. I'll talk about that in just a moment. Here, a reporter asks President Biden, what is the message to House Democrats that have reservations about this bill? Play this clip. What's the message to House Democrats who have reservations about this compromise bill? Talk to clip. So good. And meanwhile, you've got Peter Doocy asking Biden, would you consider a part? Stupidest question. It's just so stupid. These questions, they're all stupid. Like everybody, everybody, you know, every question is trying to get an answer that they could position a story as this incredibly major
Starting point is 00:19:48 conflict. They want to fight in words out of Biden. They want Biden mocks Republicans, Biden spiking the football on it. Almost the media wants to almost destroy the entire deal and help the Republicans destroy the economy. But the good thing about Biden here is that Biden is not Donald Trump. He doesn't take the bait. He does not take the bait. He actually is a master tactician. And it's moments like this that show you that Biden's decades in the Senate and time in the White House even before he was president have paid off.
Starting point is 00:20:23 Experience actually matters. It matters when you have a certain level of tact when you're dealing with these Republicans. And Biden knows these Republicans inside and out. He has worked with them. He knows that they're extremely emotional. He knows their pain points. And he knows that he's got it at a good point right now, and he's not going to fumble the ball while he's on the goal line. Anyway, here is Peter Ducey. The expression is he's not going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory right now.
Starting point is 00:20:54 I think both expressions work. That's definitely still an expression. That's still it. Brett just took it to the sports world. Yeah, both good. I know Jordy was impressed with my sports reference. I really liked it. That was really impressive.
Starting point is 00:21:04 Thanks, Jay. Anyway, here's Peter Doocy asking Biden if Biden would consider, after hearing Ron DeSantis' opinion on this issue, if Biden would consider a Trump pardon. And basically, for the listeners, Biden basically just laughs in Steve Doocy's face. Here's the clip. Did you see that Ron DeSantis said that if he became president he would pardon trump where are you on the idea of president pardoning trump because his last time the lab is great but the hand gesture too i mean that that really that's the ice get out of here because you you gotta treat the you gotta treat him like he's he's
Starting point is 00:21:43 an idiot like he's asking a stupid question you have to treat him like he's an idiot, like he's asking a stupid question. You have to treat him – you know, it's interesting. You may have seen it. The Midas Mighty may have seen it today. I interviewed Ben LeBolt, White House Communications Director. And it was such a different format for I think how interviews are conducted, which is why I think it was a pretty successful interview. Because we spoke for 15 minutes uninterrupted, right? No sound bites. I think I pressed him on the good, the bad, and the ugly in the deal. He answered the questions and I didn't try to jump
Starting point is 00:22:20 him. I didn't interrupt him, but I pushed back in certain areas, but it was ultimately a discussion. And we talked about bipartisanship. We talked about normalcy. And it was so interesting seeing the comments from so many of the Midas Mighty were like, I haven't seen an interview like that where I actually gained information. Like I learned something from that interview. And you know why, Ben? Because I was doing it, that I was doing something unique. That's just how we operate here at the Midas Touch Network. But when I read those comments, I was like, you know what?
Starting point is 00:22:57 You're right. No one else is really doing that right now. Yeah. You know what it was? You had a normal conversation like human beings have with other people, and that's not often seen on rude about it, going back and forth, getting into the nitty gritty of the bill that is going to be before the House and the Senate. I mean, I think that is really what this is all about in its purest form. And we had an opportunity to hear there from the White House communications director himself. So I thought that was a pretty special moment. I recommend everybody go check that out. It's on our YouTube channel. And maybe in a couple of days, maybe we'll
Starting point is 00:23:48 also put that interview on our podcast feed here for the audio listeners. But definitely check it out on YouTube. I thought it was fantastic. It was really amazing, Ben. You did a great job. And to your point, what I liked about the interview so much is I walked away from that with more information than when I started. I wasn't angry. I wasn't mad. I wasn't going to go out somebody's... I just felt smarter after listening. We use this marketing phrase a lot when I was in the marketing world before the Midas days. It's like, what's the tension in the campaign? That usually just meant like, what's the hook? Well, the cool thing about the tension, which the legacy media gets so wrong, is they try and make it just a horse race or whatnot.
Starting point is 00:24:26 When the real tension is truth and facts. And when you can make your tension truth and facts, the audience, as we've seen on the network, continue to grow, grows because people are interested in that. They don't want to make everything a dog and horse race. They want to watch news and actually be educated and leave there feeling smarter than they did before they came. Here's what I've noticed, which is a... Sorry, Ben. But here's what I've noticed a lot of what happens is that there are people often on
Starting point is 00:24:55 either sides of the arguments here, and their pure intent is to try to make you as angry as possible over every single thing. Everything has to be the worst thing that's ever happened to you. And that's just not the case. I mean, politics is a world of nuance. And especially in a situation like this, when you're dealing with a debt ceiling negotiation with a divided government, and you're dealing with somebody like a Kevin McCarthy at this very important time period in history, it's important to actually delve into the nuance of the situation and not get riled up by those people who just want to make you angry and pissed off and want to wear you down and have you sit on the sidelines because they try to make it seem like
Starting point is 00:25:45 everyone's the same, that everything is the same, and that nothing you do is having an impact when that could not be further from the truth. What we must not do in all these situations is let perfect become the enemy of the good. And we have to learn to take our wins. We have to learn to understand what is actually good for our democracy, what is good for the American people, and averting a catastrophic default and maintaining these incredible programs that actually help the lives of Americans who need them the most. To me, that is a huge win at the end of the day. And you have to really accept the nuance of the situation to fully appreciate it. And we don't need the media creating the tension. The tension is out there. What the media needs to be doing is observing the tension and also pointing out accurately where the tension points are coming from. So ultimately, if the MAGA Republicans are the one who are manufacturing a crisis, the media's role isn't to then take that manufactured crisis and create the tension by lobbing that manufactured crisis back and
Starting point is 00:27:02 normalizing it and then confronting Democrats like this is a whole normal discussion. The media should be calling balls and strikes and should be asking the tough questions about what's going on and reporting where the tension is arising. Why are we in this situation? So American people could become better informed. And why are we in this situation is the reason that Kevin McCarthy is facing backlash from the extremists who have taken over his party. It's not a small faction. It is the modern day MAGA Republican Party. For example, MAGA Republican Congress member Ralph Norman on Fox said, well, why don't we just put on what he said if we if we have the video?
Starting point is 00:27:47 Let's play this clip. That's not what the American people elected us for. When you can't have work requirements, imagine that when you hire in the eighty seven thousand IRAs as agents and we don't cut that. When you raise the debt ceiling to four trillion and put it past the presidential election. No, that's not what we sent Kevin to negotiate. Now, in fairness to him, he's done a good job so far. But when we're all going back, we're going to scrutinize the 100 pages. And if it's what I'm hearing, no, we're not going to give a corrupt administration, as the hearings have shown, the keys to the vault and raise the debt ceiling like apparently we're doing. But it's not going to sit with a lot of people, including me. So if this were to be a normal conversation with the media, you would ask, what do you mean, Mr. Norman, by the vault? Didn't you create the obligations and the debt? Isn't the debt that has
Starting point is 00:28:49 to be paid by the government right now caused because of the spending that you and Donald Trump and other MAGA Republicans okayed? Isn't that what this is really about? See what the answer is. If you want to go to the 87,000 IRS agents where the media just lets something like that hang out there, that's a MAGA Republican conspiracy theory. Yes, do more IRS agents have to be hired over a decade to replace IRS agents who are retiring? Yes, that's what needs to happen. Are there 87,000 IRS agents that are knocking down the homes of hardworking Americans and conducting audits on them? No. Will there be better resources within the IRS actually to help 99% of Americans with things like getting their tax refunds and addressing issues that ultimately put more money back in the pockets of the American people
Starting point is 00:29:52 because they're responsive. That is what that will do over a decade. You have to staff an agent. And Ben, we're seeing it already just while we're still on this point. We're already seeing the benefits of more funding there. In 2022, before this funding came in, only 15% of calls were answered at the IRS. These are taxpayers who are trying to get help filing their taxes or getting their tax returns, calling the IRS, not getting a human being, not getting any answers. But this year, that 15% skyrocketed to 87% of calls answered. And not only that, the wait times of the calls were drastically reduced. They were previously on average 27 minutes of waiting before you were able to get even through to anybody if you were lucky enough to even through to anybody. If you were lucky enough to get through to anybody this year, that wait time dropped from 27 minutes to four minutes. So that's an actual function of the government working. That is actually competent government. That's why even
Starting point is 00:30:57 the framing when people try to frame things as, oh, I'm for big government or I'm for small government. I reject those options even in and of themselves. To me, I just want smart government. I want government that works. I don't believe in just throwing money at a problem, but I do think agencies should have enough funding so that they're working efficiently. And it seems like Republicans, their whole thesis is that the government is bad and the government doesn't work. And then they get into government and they do everything they can to prove their thesis correct by starving the government of their programs and by being horrific themselves. That to me is not smart government at all. That is just sabotage. And the people who
Starting point is 00:31:45 end up getting hurt when you sabotage these programs, when you sabotage the VA across the board are the people, are the Americans who need this help the most. And just so you know, when they spread the conspiracy about the 87,000 IRS agents, what is so disingenuous about what they are saying is that they know that they're lying to the American people. They know they're using a Putin propaganda kind of playbook right there. What they're doing right there is that deca-millionaires and billionaires who do the Donald Trump cheating on their taxes thing and don't pay their taxes, they don't get audited. And if they are audited, the IRS doesn't have the resources to complete their audits, so they can drag it out for decades, and then it just kind
Starting point is 00:32:38 of goes away, right? So the concern here is if you add more IRS agents, that the billionaires and decamillionaires who cheat on their taxes are going to have their taxes potentially scrutinized in ways it wasn't before. And then that is weaponized by MAGA Republicans to then lie to their base. It's spread by propaganda networks, by oligarchical billionaire interests like the Murdochs because they have a vested interest in not being audited. And then they tell American people, 87,000 IRS agents are knocking on your door. They just are freaking liars at the end of the day. And Brett, when you talk about big government, small government, the whole idea
Starting point is 00:33:25 of how Republicans frame issues, it's all total BS. The very essence, what we've learned about them, we've known this before, but it's obvious right now, they just create a frame to justify whatever the hell they ultimately want to do. They love when government works to destroy women and LGBTQ plus. They love government for that. They love when government destroys books. They love when government controls the bodies of women. They freaking love that stuff right there. So it's not that they don't love government. They want the government to do their own fascistic stuff. And if they just go small government here, we're strict textualists here. Oh, you're a strict textualist? What about the Second Amendment? It talks about militias and well-regulated. Oh, well, I'm an originalist. And okay, well, let's go back to
Starting point is 00:34:20 the original aspect of this. You realize that there weren't AR-15s there. And they go, look, what the founders really meant here is you just take off regulated, you take off militia. It's just the right to bear arms and just be quiet. So it's always a moving- Don't buy into their framing. And that's honestly one of the reasons why we also push back so hard against, listen, when we say don't call these people conservative, don't buy into their framing. I saw a quote that really struck me. I believe it was from an NYU professor earlier, but they said something to the effect of, it's remarkable the way that the press uses the term conservative to mean anything that the extreme right favors.
Starting point is 00:35:05 And the more extreme they get, they just describe them as being even more conservative. So the crazier they are, it's, oh, they're just extra conservative, which makes it sound like it's a good thing. But that's not the case. They are fascists. They are extremists. And we need to be able to call it out. I see far more normal conservatives these days actually gravitating towards the Democratic Party, which has more extremists that people country in the entire world. And you are giving them cover. One of the things I noticed too, is like a lot of these far right commentators who have like podcasts and things, they try to pretend like they're actually liberals. Like Tim Pool, whenever he's referred to as far right by a news organization or something, he goes, what do you mean? I'm a Democrat. I'm a liberal. What are you talking? What are you talking? You can't just say that. You can't just make that up, which is why you can never buy into the framing that they are
Starting point is 00:36:43 projecting. There is an actual belief system behind what they are doing. And there is an autocratic coalition of people in this country and around the world. And we need to be able here to call a fascist a fascist unapologetically, because that's what they are. We see the threats. They're following the playbook. And we'll go on as we show you clips of DeSantis and the way these Republicans now are running for president. It is pure, unadulterated fascism, every single bit of it. We got a lot more show. Let's take a quick break. And when we come back, we'll talk about DeSantis. We'll talk about Jack Smith and so much more right after this quick break. And when we come back, we'll talk about DeSantis. We'll talk about Jack Smith and so much
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Starting point is 00:40:53 responses very quickly, and then I want to compare what President Biden said on Memorial Day to Donald Trump's message because it's the perfect contrast of, I think, decency and compassion with the real fascist idiocracy threat we face. Then let's talk about Ron DeSantis because it's linked to that fascist idiocracy. So here's what Lauren Boebert said. She said, our base didn't volunteer, door knock, fight so hard to get us the majority for this kind of compromise deal with Joe Biden. Our voters deserve better than this. We work for them. You can count on me as a no on this deal. We can do better. MAGA Republican Dan Bishop writes, heard the call. RINOs congratulating McCarthy for getting almost Zippo in exchange for a $4 trillion debt ceiling hike was enough to make you puke emoji.
Starting point is 00:41:50 Actually, it's so bad they won't give a figure for the debt ceiling hike, only that it's suspended until quarter one of 2025. Our bill was a year less. Dan Bishop, you're the reason why the debt is there. We have to pay your debt, you freaking idiot. Congressman, we have to pay your debt. The money is already – We've already cut it up. You ran it up. You ran it up. To the extent it needs to be increased, it's because you took that credit card that McCarthy was talking about and you spent it on things, MAGA Republican,
Starting point is 00:42:23 bad things, not things for the american people things for freaking billionaires oh you want another private jet oh thank you more private it's like the dumbest stuff you know and then you rile up the mega republicans like they're taking your money from you okay they're stealing your money and they're giving it to billionaires who already have more money than they ever need in multiple lifetimes. And then they're getting you outraged about the green freaking M&M. Just think about that. MAGA Republican Congressman Bob Good writes, I'm hearing the quote deal for a $4 trillion increase in the debt limit. If that's true, I don't need to hear anything else. No one claiming to be conservative could justify a yes. Well, y'all aren't conservative.
Starting point is 00:43:13 I like that Congressman Bob Good thinks that he's conservative. You ran up the debt and now you don't want to pay the bill. If we're talking about strictly conservative, it's the least conservative thing in the world. Go and sing your freaking songs with the J6 choir, Congressman. Show what a conservative you are by putting out new tracks on iTunes with freaking terrorists. I mean, come on. But let's go and show you the contrast between on Memorial Day, President Biden and Donald Trump. Here's President Biden's Memorial Day message. On Memorial Day, we honor America's fallen heroes who have gave their last full measure of devotion to this nation. We'll never be able to repay the debt we owe them. But today, we rededicate ourselves to the work for which they gave their lives and we recommit to
Starting point is 00:44:06 supporting the loved ones they left behind. Donald Trump's response in all caps, happy Memorial Day to all, but especially to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for the country they love and those in line of a very different but equally dangerous fire stopping the threats of terrorists, misfits, and lunatic thugs who are working feverishly from within to overturn and destroy our once great country, which has never been in greater peril than it is right now. We must stop the communists, Marxists, and fascist pigs at every turn and make America great again. I mean, look, everything he says is the ultimate projection, but just think about how perverted he is. It's perverted. He is a sick, perverted, freaking maniac. And if you look at that and you go, I'm going to hide, that's a sick, freaking
Starting point is 00:45:06 deranged lunatic. Pull it up side by side right there. It is the ultimate litmus test. If you look at the one on the right and go, at least it's the right for me on the screen for Donald Trump, and you go, the one with all caps talking about communist and Marxist fascist pigs, if you go, that's the guy I want to give the nuclear codes to again, that is the person I want making life or death decisions for me, my family, people I know, my country, the world. If that's who you say is normal, we got some big problems there. But that's why, to your point, Brett, true conservatives are siding with Democrats right now. I know the large media networks don't want to acknowledge that doesn't fit their narrative. It doesn't fit their framing of the issue. But there's a
Starting point is 00:46:06 pro-democracy coalition, and then there is a fascist idiocracy coalition right now. And in the pro-democracy tent, it's not so much that I'm a Democrat as so much as I want leaders who are compassionate, decent, intelligent. I know my leader's not going to be perfect. I know that I'm going to disagree with President Biden on a lot of issues. That is fine. But let's start with the threshold or a baseline of decency, compassion, humanity, intelligence, and just fundamentally trying to figure out these issues. And where the MAGA Republicans are talking, and we'll go to this in just a little bit,
Starting point is 00:46:51 think about this. Their campaign is for a civil war in the country. They're not talking about threats abroad, the real threats, like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un. They freaking love those guys. Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, that's their boys. That's their buddies. Donald Trump wrote a whole book, letters he received from fascists. Not actually, he wrote it. He took the letters he got from Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un and made a freaking coffee book, coffee table book, and sold
Starting point is 00:47:23 it for hundreds of dollars to grift off of his people. They love those people, but they declare war on Memorial Day against Americans. Disgraceful. Yeah. You have Donald Trump openly calling for war against more than half the country. I mean, the MAGA base, you know, it's most generous, at its most generous, if you maybe want to put it at what, 25% of the country, which I think is extremely a generous number. Donald Trump is calling anybody who does not support him, so think like 70, 75% of the country, calling them the enemy of the United States of America. And that does not even register as a blip on the nightly news. That's just, oh, that's just Trump being Trump. Imagine for one second, imagine for one second, a president Biden attacking more than half the country, calling them terrorists. Just imagine the reaction that we
Starting point is 00:48:27 would see in that case. And while you see President Biden consistently making efforts, consistently making comments to the effect of, I am a president for all Americans, even if you don't agree with me, I want to make lives better for everybody in this country. You see people like Donald Trump, you see people like Ron DeSantis, and you see other people in the Republican Party openly launching attacks on people who don't agree with them ideologically. That is actually the core of their leadership style, if you want to even call it that. The core of their beliefs is that the biggest threats to America are Democrats. The biggest threats to America are people who are pro-democracy. And that is what is so dangerous about people like Donald Trump
Starting point is 00:49:21 and like Ron DeSantis and like all of these MAGA Republicans. And that's why we need to remain vigilant and we need to consistently expose them. And we need to have the correct level of outrage when we hear these statements and not just let them go by the wayside and go, oh, that's just Donald being done. Oh, that's just the Republicans these days. That's just what they say. No, it's not normal, folks. It's not a normal thing. That was the Memorial Day message. And just so you have every major holiday, Donald Trump posts one of these all caps, hateful messages. I mean,
Starting point is 00:49:59 he posts them every day on his social media platform here. Pull up Christmas. This is what he wrote for Christmas. So we caught the government of the United States through the use of the FBI and other agencies conclusively, irrefutably cheating on the 2020 presidential election. It's going to be 2026 and he's going to be talking about the 2020 election, him and Kerry Lake. And then he goes on, they're destroying our country. Okay. That was Christmas. Here was Easter. Merry Christmas. Happy Easter to all, including those that dream endlessly of destroying
Starting point is 00:50:31 our country because they're incapable of dreaming about anything else. Those that are incompetent, they don't realize that having a border and powerful wall is a good thing. Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to all, including racist, vicious, highly partisan, politically motivated, and very unfair radical left Democrat judges, prosecutors, district attorneys, and attorney generals who campaign unrelentingly against you without knowing a thing and endlessly promise to take you down. Well, at least when he doesn't win the presidency, he'll have a second career as a writer for Hallmark greeting cards, because those are just beautiful messages.
Starting point is 00:51:11 You call that up, and I was thinking in my head, like the Jimmy Kimmel skits or the Fallon skits of them writing like, dear, dear diary, and then just going to absurd extremes in their letters to whomever. That's what I imagine that sort of being if they were to do a, just like sort of a joke skit on a president who's lost his mind. But there's nothing funny about this because it's not a joke. These are real things that the lunatic ex-former president said. Like you said, this guy had the nuclear codes and there are people out there that are like reading those tweets or those truths or whatever you want to call them and like, hey, I want to give them another chance here. And look, you know, I say this a lot. I say this a lot here, you know, and, and, and then I want to show DeSantis, but
Starting point is 00:51:53 look, we live in very complicated and complex times and it is very difficult to confront the serious problems we face accurately, like to truly assess the situations, to understand them, to try to address them, to figure out solutions, and to work collaboratively. That process is hard, but it is a necessary thing that we need to engage in as a nation. To do that, everyone needs to play their part, but you need leadership who can rally people around logic and the truth and all of those ideas. It is easier, and this is why historically fascism and the leadership of autocrats has been the norm over democracies because a strong man can come in and just say, I alone can fix it. It is the fault of this group or that group, and you need to hate them. And then for some people who have anger in their hearts, it just makes them feel good. It makes them go, ah, no wonder it's difficult out there. Not that life is complicated and difficult and we have to sometimes do difficult things and make sacrifices.
Starting point is 00:53:21 It just is sometimes to some people you go, it's that group who did it. Let's hate them. Let's go after them. And then people are like, all right, no wonder things are tough. It's their fault versus let's figure out how we can all benefit. Let's enact policies that can benefit. I saw that election in Turkey again, and just watching the leader hand out those dollar bills to the- At the polls. At the polls, literally bribing people and thinking about, that's how Trump sees himself. That's how these autocrats see themselves. Speaking of which, this is how DeSantis spent this Memorial Day also and this weekend. This was an interview that he gave
Starting point is 00:54:06 where it is the rhetoric of a fascist when he's asked why you should vote for him. In the past, you'd have politicians, even the Republican Party, set forth a vision that they have of a country. No, not anymore. This is what DeSantis said, why you should vote for him. Play this clip. Is right now the time for Ron DeSantis to run for president? Because everyone knows if I'm the nominee, I will beat Biden and I will serve two terms and I will be able to destroy leftism in this country and leave woke ideology on the dustbin of history.
Starting point is 00:54:46 And what is he even talking about? What is it? You're going to destroy the leftists. Your goal, like he's literally saying there, and I don't want to mince words, right? He's saying that he wants to kill America. I think we have to give it its proper framing and they'll deny it. They'll go, I don't think that I was going to just intellectually destroy it. Okay.
Starting point is 00:55:10 One, DeSantis, you can't intellectually destroy a freaking fly, number one. But number two, no, the rhetoric that you are basically saying when you're using words like extinguish, exterminate, destroy, you're telling people that it is okay to kill. You're giving them a free pass to do that. You have no agenda because I will win. Why should I vote for you? Because I will win. Well, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? Destroy the leftists. Honestly, it's the same thing as the Trump posts that we read before. It's at the end of the day, no different. They have to both out extreme each other.
Starting point is 00:55:48 And once again, think about if Biden went on TV and he said his number one goal was to exterminate conservatives or I'm going to destroy conservatism. There'd be pandemonium, absolute pandemonium, and it would be absolutely warranted. What you're supposed to do as a leader of a country is to say, I will be a president for all Americans and I will work to build consensus and I will put the best policies forward that will benefit the most people, especially the most vulnerable among us. It is not, I want to destroy more than half of the country because they disagree with my beliefs. That right there in and of itself is completely disqualifying for anybody running for any government office whatsoever. I don't
Starting point is 00:56:41 care if you're running for president or if you're running for dog catcher. I don't care. That is utterly disqualifying. So this is like prep work DeSantis is essentially doing now for the debates coming up, right? So what he's going to be doing at these debates, just to, I don't know, predict a little bit here a couple months out, is all he'll be doing is saying leftist this and woke that, woke ideology. These buzzwords on a national stage are going to flop because nobody understands what he's talking about. These aren't tangible things that people actually, the average American citizen understands. They're just looking at him like, what are you doing? What'll be interesting in those debates is Trump's obviously not going to debate. I think that's a fair prediction. He said he's not going to debate. So what you'll see
Starting point is 00:57:27 is all of the other kind of phony candidates who are actually running to be Trump's VP or to try to be the spoiler for trying to attack Ron DeSantis. So Tim Scott and others, they will all gang up on DeSantis in there. And it'll just become like, well, you're not loyal to Donald Trump. You're disloyal. You're disloyal. You're more disloyal. It's going to be completely, completely embarrassing. But the only thing I've heard DeSantis talk about policy-wise is he wants to, what's it called, with the January 6th, fully pardon the January 6th insurrectionists. He wants to give them pardons. He also would likely give a pardon to Donald Trump. That's one of the things that he's talked about. And then,
Starting point is 00:58:11 of course, he wants to destroy the woke, and then he continues to keep going after Disney. By the way, here, DeSantis, finally, in this interview, after not mentioning Trump's name, he finally invokes Trump's name to mock him for supporting Disney sexualizing children. Like, we need toys, freaking Disney. These people are, just play this clip. Like, it's just some really weird, deranged stuff. We got to call it what it is. Play this clip. We obviously have a lot in common with Iowa in terms of what Florida's done and what they've done under Governor Kim Reynolds. And I think the groundswell of support has been really, really strong. And, you know, we're going to press the case. I mean, you know, they had mentioned there may be some differences
Starting point is 00:58:52 with me and Donald Trump. And I think that those differences were down to my benefit in a place like Iowa. I mean, for example, you know, he's taken the side of Disney in our fight down here in Florida. I'm standing for parents. I'm standing for children. And I think a multibillion dollar company that sexualizes children is not consistent with the values of Florida or the values of a place like Iowa. I think it's also interesting. I think it's interesting that he's doing that interview in Jacksonville, where the candidate he endorsed just lost the Democratic mayor mayor candidate, Donna Deegan, just won on kind of a very common sense, like let's bring the city together kind of platform. And then, of course, the background with the battleship right there on Memorial Day. And granted, he's a veteran. It was reported that he was a lawyer in the military,
Starting point is 00:59:49 which should still be certainly applauded. What should not be is when he cosplays like he was a fighter pilot. We have a fighter pilot here, Ken Harbaugh, on the Midas Touch Network, who did a whole video talking about how DeSantis was not a fighter pilot. So when he dresses up like a fighter pilot, how offensive that is. What DeSantis' job was, was to clean up the urine for the fighter pilots. That was DeSantis' job. And so Ken Harbaugh called out DeSantis for cosplaying like that, but also on Memorial Day to stand in front of a battleship like that and to use the military as his kind of background, as a literal prop to project his kind of form of fascism.
Starting point is 01:00:39 You know that's what they... I mean, that's obviously why they chose that location because he's a little man and they think that makes him look – put a big battleship behind that little man. Right. The pardon comment then, the pardon comment, which I don't know if we'll play here, but in another clip, DeSantis had shouted out that he would pardon Donald Trump if given the opportunity to if he was president in the future. That's a funny sort of big league thing to do. Say, hey, if and when I'm president, yeah, I pardon Trump. It's a funny game to play because I just wish a reporter now goes back to Donald Trump and says, hey, DeSantis said he would pardon you if you were president. Would you accept a pardon from President DeSantis and have Trump lose his mind? I mean, he wouldn't be able to
Starting point is 01:01:22 compute those logistics there. He would say no. He would say, no, I wouldn't accept it. I love the thing about pardoning is the ultimate question we'd ask for which crime? Because there's a multitude of things through which someone could be pardoned for. Can't pardon for state crimes. Just a quick update on what's going on with special counsel Jack Smith. So Donald Trump's lawyers, as I mentioned at the outset, are dropping like flies. And one of the biggest indications of this is if you look at the two recent lawsuits that Donald Trump filed, one was this $500 million lawsuit he filed in federal court against my co-host of Political Beatdown, Michael Cohen, where by the way, the Midas Touch Network's like mentioned throughout that lawsuit. So Donald
Starting point is 01:02:05 Trump's lawyer in that case is like a lawyer who did franchise law, like a franchise transactional lawyer who doesn't litigate cases like that. And I think on that person's website, it was like, I forget the person's name, it was like, but so-and-so just won their first appeal in their history. So that's who's their first appeal in their history. So that's who's representing Donald Trump in that case. And Michael Cohen said that he's filing Rule 11 sanctions against that lawyer. By the way, that could be a significant amount of money. So wonder if that lawyer got an indemnification agreement in place from Donald Trump when he's hit with those sanctions. And then the other lawsuit Donald Trump filed recently through Trump media was against the Washington Post. He filed that in state court in Tampa. And there he had a solo practitioner whose specialty is workers'
Starting point is 01:02:58 compensation law sue the Washington Post for $3.6 billion, although some other places in the lawsuit, it says $2.6 billion. So I'm not sure. They're just making up numbers, basically. Even though the entire Trump media is listed in Donald Trump's financial disclosures in connection with the Republican primary as being from $5 to $25 million, he claims that the damage caused by the defamation was – it wasn't defamation. Are you saying Donald Trump may falsely value his various properties? That's an interesting data point. Interesting you would say that. Interesting you would bring that up.
Starting point is 01:03:36 That his financial disclosures would say $5 to $25 million and now he's claiming the damage to him was $3.6 billion. Meanwhile, the SPAC, which is supposed to merge into Trump Media Digital World Acquisition Company, before this weekend, they filed with the SEC a notice on an 8K form saying that they had made material errors on their past annual financial statements and that their own financials could no longer be relied upon, that they had inadequate safeguards in connection with their accounting practices. They've already fired their CEO right there. This is just so when everyone goes, oh, you're just, you know, all the MAGA people, oh, you're
Starting point is 01:04:21 both saying that. Like Trump's, the SPAC that's emerging into Trump media filed this document. It's in their own words that they told the SEC that their own documents could not be relied upon and that there was material accounting error. So good luck with that defamation lawsuit against the Washington Post where you're out there where the SPAC is saying that there are material accounting errors in the financial statements. Look, Tim Parlatore, I'm not going to say I'm going to give him any credit because he's Trump's lawyer at one point in time, but he jumped ship to his credit at the perfect time. He saw where this was going.
Starting point is 01:05:06 And not only did he jump ship, he said Boris Epstein, Donald Trump's other lawyer, basically obstructed justice. He's like, yeah, he wouldn't let me do the searches in Bedminster. He wouldn't let me do this. And then boom, within two days, all of this other news came out. I don't know if Parletory is one of the off-the-record sources, but the timing of Parlatory leaving with all of this new news coming out about Trump having these maintenance workers move the boxes the day before the Department of Justice showed up at Mar-a-Lago on June 3rd and all of those new developments, the dress rehearsals were taking place at Mar-a-Lago before. Dress rehearsals.
Starting point is 01:05:51 We were doing dress rehearsals of how to hide the classified records. So we will keep you posted there. But it looks like we're at the stage where a recommendation is being made to Merrick Garland to pursue the indictment. And that's why the grand jury, in connection with the investigation of Donald Trump's theft of documents, hasn't met since May 5th, which is a long time for the grand jury to have not met. And what that tells me, what the data suggests, is that that time is used by special counsel Jack Smith to prepare a memo probably take him about a month to prepare to Merrick Garland recommending that charges be brought I know a lot of people are skeptical what Merrick Garland will do let me give you this assurance I will
Starting point is 01:06:42 never say a hundred percent anything but I will go 95 to 99%. If special counsel Jack Smith makes the recommendation to indict Donald Trump, Merrick Garland is not going to overrule that recommendation, period, full stop. Merrick Garland selected Jack Smith because he knew the diligent type of prosecutor Jack Smith was. You would not take Jack Smith from The Hague, where he was prosecuting war criminals, come here to take all of this abuse from Donald Trump to do a thorough investigation, find all of the crimes, and then throw Jack Smith under the bus. Not happening at all. So if Jack Smith makes that recommendation, there will be indictments. And I think we will be reporting on that this summer for sure. And tell us, Brett, what happened with Ken Paxton, some fireworks this weekend that a House Republican-led committee that was appointed by the House Republican
Starting point is 01:07:50 leader, this was Republican-led the whole way. They're the ones who control it. Trust Democrats wanted the guy impeached six years ago, 10 years ago. They don't control the House of Representatives. But Speaker of the House, Republican, Investigative Committee, Republican, all of the witnesses, Republican, the votes, Republican, what happened? So what you're telling me, Ben, is this was all a liberal Marxist communist witch hunt against Ken Paxton is what I heard. That's what Donald Trump said and Lauren and Marjorie. And Ken Paxton, by the way, it's what Ken Paxton said, too, because they like to deflect all their criminality by blaming the other. It's a common fascist authoritarian tactic.
Starting point is 01:08:35 And when cornered, when confronted with blatant criminality, they need to make it a game of me versus evil. And when that is just not the case, and especially not the case when you are a Republican in Texas. So this seemed to all of a sudden move at such a rapid pace over the past few days, where the Texas House ultimately voted 121 to 23, all 23, of course, being all Republicans. But the 121 was made up of 60 Republicans, including the Texas Speaker of the House, to impeach Ken Paxton, the Attorney General of Texas, and refer him to the Senate for trial on charges of bribery, abuse of office, obstruction. And as part of it, Paxton is actually suspended from his duties in office pending the result of the Senate trial. So currently he is not the AG. He does not have
Starting point is 01:09:33 that position while the Senate acts. And today I just saw right before we went live that those impeachment articles were brought over to the Texas Senate, where the next phase of this will begin. So remember, impeachment is basically like the congressional equivalent of being indicted. But that does not in and of itself mean that you are removed from office. There is a Senate trial, which is not a trial in the court of law by any means, but it is a legislative practice. And if convicted in the Senate, then you would be removed from office. So we will see what the Texas Republicans do. And I don't think a lot of people fully understand the structure of these state governments, but every single state has its own Senate and its own House of Representatives that is separate
Starting point is 01:10:26 from the National House of Representatives and Senate. So two completely different things. This is happening in the state house within Texas. And I thought one of the interesting things about this, and one of the interesting things that we're seeing with this new feud between these DeSantis supporters and these Trump supporters, is we're seeing Trump's influence in the Republican Party begin to wane ever so slightly. Donald Trump, right before this vote happened, Donald Trump put up an urgent message, urging people not to vote for impeachment, urging Republicans. He said, I love Texas, won it twice in landslides and watched as many other friends, including Ken Paxton,
Starting point is 01:11:12 came along with me. Hopefully Republicans in the Texas House will agree that this is a very unfair process that should not be allowed to happen or proceed. I will fight you if it does. So he's threatening any Republican who dare vote against him. It is the radical left Democrats, rhinos, and criminals that never stop. So much projection here. All caps, election interference, free Ken Paxton, let them wait for the next election. So you would think Donald Trump having the bully pulpit that he's had amongst the Republican Party over the past few years, they often kind of folded to his dumb posts. This time they said, I don't give a crap what he says. And they voted to impeach Paxton 121 to 23. So following this impeachment, what does Ken Paxton do? Does he take responsibility?
Starting point is 01:12:09 Absolutely not. Paxton releases a statement and it's beyond even parody at this point, but he blamed, quote, liberal Republicans and Democrats. It was like almost every Republican in Texas, but he blamed liberal Republicans and Democrats. And Paxton is a guy who even years ago has already been under indictment for securities fraud. So this is a guy who has been evading the law now for almost a decade. Now he just can't stop criming. He's on all these bribery charges. He's accused of having a donor help fund his mistress to live closer to him, doing all these improper dealings with a big donor, improperly spending like $3.1 million of Texas money. Just every kind of crime in the book, he is just running. And he retaliated against the whistleblowers who were kind of right-wing people who called him out and said, what are you doing?
Starting point is 01:13:13 You're like violating the law. You can't do that. You can't be working with this real estate agent. You're the attorney general. And then he retaliated against them. They sued him. He then like organized retaliated against them. They sued him. He then organized the payoff for them.
Starting point is 01:13:28 One of the whole things with this real estate agent at the end of the day, or this real estate developer, was the real estate developer was then basically paying for Paxton's mistress to work for him, but right next to Paxton, because Paxton didn't want to drive 90 minutes to see her. He wanted her to be closer to him. The interesting question, which I put out at the top though, is Paxton's wife, this is the MAGA Republican politics for you, is a senator, is a state senator in Texas. By law, well, she doesn't have to recuse herself, but if she follows the law, she will recuse herself there. But it'll be interesting to see what she does and the way she became a state senator. He loaned her the money to basically
Starting point is 01:14:19 run. And as I said at the outset, she ran on a campaign. I'm a pistol packing mama whose husband sues Obama. That was her platform. And you would think, you might think in your head, okay, Trump, obviously Trump made those disgusting comments, but I'm sure he was on an island, right? And you'd be wrong if you thought that. Because even people like Senator Ted Cruz of Texas immediately jumped to Ken Paxton's defense. And this was also right before the vote. He did an entire thread on Twitter. This was the first post. What is happening to Ken Paxton is a travesty. For the last nine years, Ken has been the strongest conservative AG in the country, bar none. No attorney general has battled the abuses of the Biden administration more ferociously and
Starting point is 01:15:11 more effectively than has Paxton. And he joined the ranks of people like Marjorie Taylor Greene. You're in good company, Ted. Marjorie Taylor Greene saying Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has led the fight against the corrupt Biden administration, defended Texas election integrity, predicted the lives of the unborn and tirelessly fights to secure the southern border. This Texas House led impeachment is a witch hunt, always a witch hunt with these people. And, you know, I have a couple kind of thoughts with this. One, though, is when they defend people who are so blatantly criminals and they use the same rhetoric over and over, this witch hunt rhetoric, it's a Democrat scheme, it's this and that. It shows how big of liars they are because this is such a clear-cut case of corruption run amok by this person. And it just shows you how corrupt this entire political party has become, that they're defending this guy, at least on the national level here, where you have them really trying to defend a criminal. And Ted Cruz says it outright,
Starting point is 01:16:16 basically, because he thinks the way we do and he is implementing these hateful policies that we want. So he should be immune to prosecution because he's MAGA, basically, is what they're saying. And that's part of this cult mindset. And that's why our whole thing, when we're speaking about these issues, is listen, believe what you want to believe. Don't hurt people, though. Don't attack people, and live in reality. And this person, Ken Paxton, he's already been indicted, as we said, but he's so blatantly criminal. And when the evidence was presented to these House committees in Texas, when it was presented to the Texas Republicans, they were so appalled and they realized at least that he was such a liability to them that they realized that they needed to impeach him right away. Yet, rather than reviewing the facts, seeing that he's so blatantly corrupt and saying, hey, I may agree with him politically, as hateful as his policies
Starting point is 01:17:17 are to us, but you could say, I may agree with him politically, but this guy clearly broke the law, violated the public trust, and so he deserves to face the consequences of those actions. Instead of doing that, they double down on their criminality and like a fascist criminal cult, they go and they try to protect that person because he is one of them. And that is not a place where we could have legitimate discussions with another party when their first instinct, and not even their first, their whole ideology is just, we need to protect the cult at all costs. And the more criminal, the better, ultimately, for people like Ted Cruz, for people like Carrie Lake, for people like Marjorie Taylor Greene. You lose all credibility when you refuse to call it
Starting point is 01:18:04 out. And instead, you sell your soul to these people like that. Right. You're so right. And you know what was interesting? Reading these texts and these tweets the second time around with you actually reading them, notice how in none of them, they say he's innocent, that he's not guilty of these accusations. They use words like travesty and witch hunt and the Biden administration's doing, but they never once defend Paxton on the merit that he's not guilty of these accusations. Their entire argument to that point, Jordy, is he's one of us, so he shouldn't be prosecuted. He's one of us. He's not one of those criminal Marxist liberal communists, right? He's's one of us so how dare you go after him and that is fascism that is autocracy and you know and and i will always remind those mega republicans or those republicans who are on the fence of that great poem about first they came for the trade
Starting point is 01:19:01 unionist i wasn't a trade unionist so i didn't do anything they came for the trade unionist. I wasn't a trade unionist, so I didn't do anything. They came for the socialist. I didn't do anything because I wasn't a socialist. They came for the Jews. I didn't do anything because I wasn't a Jew. And then they came for me, and there was nobody who was there for me. The MAGA Republicans will label Bill Barr a rhino. Put it that way. The guy who literally covered up for Donald Trump in the most egregious ways is a rhino because he was not
Starting point is 01:19:27 willing to go as far. He tried to. I can't justify Donald Trump, you ridiculous thing, that there are secret satellite dishes beaming Hugo Chavez's body and bamboo is changing elections from Dominica. I don't even know what you're talking about. I can't do that one for you. I could do the other stuff for you. I can't go there for you. Rhino, rhino, liberal. And so they'll come for you. They'll come for you. They'll come for you eventually. That's the nature of authoritarianism. That's the nature of fascism. But on this Memorial Day, I am just so grateful to be part of this pro-democracy community here at the Midas Touch Network. I again want to take this opportunity to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. And I also want to honor all of those vets out there as well who have made the ultimate sacrifice, who have sacrificed each and every day
Starting point is 01:20:26 for our country. And our country owes to all the vets out there, owes you the best, period, full stop, no questions asked. And we're just so grateful for all of you. I see a lot of comments by vets in our comment section, in the chats. And I just want to, from the bottom of my heart, thank you also for your service and for everything. And one of the things we strive to do here on the Midas Touch Network is to always bring attention if there's ever an issue, if there's ever anything that we can do to be helpful to support vets and to support our military here for those sacrificing. Make sure you reach out in the comments and we want to highlight those issues here with our platform. One of the things I've been noticing also
Starting point is 01:21:20 on the YouTube page are those badges, the membership badges on YouTube. If you see the dollar sign at the bottom of the YouTube page, if you click that, you could become a member of the YouTube. It's different than Patreon, but you become a member. You get those badges that you see over there. And then one of the features too, you could actually buy other people memberships if you're already a member. That's one of the options it gives you. So consider hitting that dollar sign and doing one of those memberships or buying others memberships if you are already a member. Check out store.midastouch.com for the best pro-democracy gear. Jordy, you want to tell everybody about our great new gear?
Starting point is 01:22:05 We have some amazing new merch out there, especially right in time for summer, especially right in time for Pride Month, actually, more specifically. We have two great products right now. Drag is Not a Crime and Armida's Pride Shirt. So portions from those profits of those items, they go to the Trevor Project, which helps at-risk LGBTQ youth. So definitely check those out. We have I Like My Beer Cold and Gay Koozie. And then we just have a new Hot Democracy Summer Tank. So definitely check those out, store.midastouch.com. We're very excited and proud of these designs. Oh, I love them. You got to check them out. And those koozies are going to be the greatest. I can't wait to see them all summer long. And big news also, I'm really excited about this. We're going
Starting point is 01:22:49 to be scheduling very soon. So keep a lookout our next Patreon Q&A where we do Q&A sessions with our patrons, where we've set up a private Zoom chat. You get to meet the three of us. You get to ask us any questions. We stay on for really as long as we could go to answer every single person's question in the chat. It's a really special, intimate experience where we get to meet you figuratively face-to-face through Zoom. As face-to-face as things often get here in a post-pandemic world. But make sure you sign up for our Patreon. It's available for all of our patrons at patreon.com slash Midas Touch. Always like one of the highlights of my month is to do that Zoom Q&A with all of our viewers,
Starting point is 01:23:35 all of our listeners. Make sure, of course, you subscribe to the audio Midas Touch podcast if you're watching us here on YouTube. And if you're listening to us on the audio Midas Touch podcast, make sure that you are subscribed to the Midas Touch YouTube channel for new videos all day long, all the breaking news updates that you've come to expect and love from the Midas Touch Network. To the Midas Mighty, thank you so much. None of this is possible without you. We are so grateful for your support. We are so grateful for this pro-democracy community. Jordy, take it away. Shout out to the Midas Mighty! Lock him up! Indictment season is upon us.
Starting point is 01:24:09 Celebrate with the new indictment season t-shirt and v-neck exclusively at store.midastouch.com.

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