The MeidasTouch Podcast - Trump LOSES HIS MIND as MORE Trials Approach

Episode Date: November 21, 2023

On this episode of the MeidasTouch Podcast: A DC Appeals Court clashes with Trump’s lawyers and DOJ prosecutors as they debate the merits of the gag order issued by Judge Chutkan; Donald Trump talks about golden showers in a high school gym in Iowa; The Republican Party spreads new ludicrous conspiracy theories; President Biden’s celebrates his birthday and pardons some Turkeys; UAW contract updates; and more! Ben, Brett and Jordy break it all down! DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS: Fum: Start the Good Habit at tryfum.com/MEIDAS to save an additional 20% off the Journey Pack today until December 1st, and 10% off year round. Miracle Made: Go to trymiracle.com/meidas and use code MEIDAS to claim your free 3-piece towel set and save over 40% off! Aura Frames: Save $40 on the best selling Carver Mat frame by visiting auraframes.com/MEIDAS and use promo code MEIDAS Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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charge bet mgm operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming ontario donald trump did something that i suppose is still called giving a speech in a small high school gym in Fort Dodge, Iowa over the weekend, where he bragged that the leader of the Taliban called him your excellency. He said that he opposed wind energy because his TV would shut off when the wind stopped blowing. He confused the PPP with the TPP and said he's abolished the PPP. And unprompted, he told voters in Iowa, this is a big platform of his and MAGA Republicans now, that he does not like golden showers from hookers. Local Iowa media praise the speech because, let's face it, there is no bottom to the depths of depravity of Donald Trump's challenge to a gag order imposed on him by federal judge Tanya Chutkin in the Washington, D.C. federal criminal case for Trump's attempt to overthrow the

results of the 2020 election. That case is set for trial in March of 2024. Donald Trump's lawyers argued that there was essentially no limit to the types of threats and things he can say despite being indicted for multiple felony criminal charges. We'll get into that. Meanwhile, MAGA Republicans in Congress at the highest levels keep pushing the absurd, baseless Putin style claim that the insurrection on January 6th is actually not what we all saw on TV, but it was actually something else. You see, according to Republicans, it was a massive conspiracy called a fedsurrection caused by the FBI. That's actually what the Republicans are saying. As part of spreading this absurd and dangerous lie, because the MAGA Republican leaders themselves were involved in the insurrection, they had MAGA Mike, their Speaker of the House, who doesn't have any bank

accounts apparently, release a small fraction of Capitol surveillance footage from the insurrection so that then MAGA Republican leaders in Congress could claim that some convicted insurrectionist who was holding up a vape in the Capitol was actually holding an FBI badge, not a vape. Now, I thought with Lauren Boebert's Beetlejuice behavior, blowing a vape smoke in the face of public theater goers in Denver, that MAGA Republicans would know what a vape looked like. But no, we know who this convicted felon is. We know he's not a fed. He was convicted. He called himself an idiot during his sentencing hearing. And this is what MAGA Republicans are doing. It is beneath contempt.

Now, back in the world of normalcy and actually getting things done, which apparently legacy media and local media just doesn't give a crap about anymore. Inflation is actually decreasing. Now, under the Biden administration, America has the lowest inflation of any G7 nation. Costs are coming down just in time for Thanksgiving. Inflation was 0% last month. The United Auto Workers said its members ratified new contracts with all the big three automakers. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Kiev Monday morning for an unannounced visit to Ukraine, his second to the country since Russia's unlawful invasion in February 2022, where Austin announced more military aid to Ukraine and pledged long-term support. about hookers and golden showers is somehow comparable or even better than this. It is absurd. I am angry. We are breaking it down here on the Midas Touch YouTube channel right here on

the Midas Touch Network. Ben, Brett, and Jordy. I mean, these intros, it is maddening MAGA mad libs here. It's crazy and it gets crazier every single day. Almost feels like every single minute, the gaslighting that we see from these MAGA Republicans is just off the charts. We have spoken about before living in this age of disinformation and that doesn't even nearly scratch the surface as to what is going on. And you could see these MAGA Republicans, and really, we could just call them Republicans at this point. It's this entire strain of the Republican Party that dominates this Republican Party. They are trying to implement this Russian-style, Soviet-style propagandist, reality doesn't exist, reality is what we tell you. We've seen this pattern with them before. When democracy does not work for them, well, it's time for no more democracy because we're not meeting our ends with democracy.

Too many people who we don't want to vote are voting. So we can't allow that. When it comes to just the basic facts, truth, things that we saw with our own eyes, heard with our own ears, oh, reality isn't doing it for us anymore. So we need to completely alter reality. Let's create our own reality. Let's just completely lie, completely fabricate things, try to defame people, just be the worst people in the world. And they couch it all in terminology the same way that Russia does it, in the opposite of what they're doing. So they'll say, I'm against censorship. I'm the most first, I'm a first amendment absolutist. I'm the most first amendment there ever is. Then somebody says something bad about them and they go, that's defamation. I'm going to file a criminal case against you.

We're going to have all our criminal cases against you. We're going to have the attorney generals file criminal cases because you said mean things about us. This, folks, is what happens in Russia. This, folks, is what happens in fascist countries, and it is the future of the United States if Republicans get their way. I'm almost happy in a way, though, that they are just exposing themselves in this way right now, as much as they tried to hide it. I'm happy that they are being so blatant about it so that you and all the voters out there can truly see the stakes of what is going on right now before it is too late. Jordy, we're both rocking the new minus gear today. I'm like head to toe right now.

I love the regular logo one. I got the fade on. I got the hat on. You're a company man. What can I say, Brett? You're a company man. Company man, Brett. My soul.

How you doing, Jay? I'm doing all right. I'm doing okay. I mean, it's exhausting. The reason why we see the Russian-style disinformation campaign that's going out there is because, quite frankly, it works. And it gets people exhausted. And it gets people exhausted to the point where they want to stop. They want to stop fighting back against it and calling it out. But I just implore our audience, the mightiest, mighty viewers, listeners of the show, don't stop. We have to sprint through the finish line of the 2024 election, and you have to continue to call this out at every step of the way. It is so crucial

to just keep going. Brett, to your example, an organization called Media Matters literally posted the types of messages that Elon Musk made saying, this is what he said. They then posted that these messages were on or around advertisers. By the way, it wasn't only Media Matters saying these things, but if you are a First Amendment purist, you should allow Media Matters to call out that. Even if Elon Musk thinks that his speech is perfect, which it absolutely isn't, Media Matters is criticizing that. So not only is the reaction to sue Media Matters right now and intimidate them. But now the MAGA Republican attorney generals across the country are basically thinking about how they could criminally charge speech,

criminally charge a criticism of Elon Musk. Now, very different than when we talk about the Trump gag order. The issue with the Trump gag order, like other criminal defendants, when you are charged with an actual felony for other crimes, you then have to deal with the orderly administration of justice and not causing substantial prejudice in a proceeding. But where a media company is criticizing speech, and then right before we went live, you have the corrupt attorney general from Texas who got out of being fully convicted on the impeachment, was impeached by Republicans in the Texas House because Donald Trump basically threatened the senators. He put out a statement that he is now engaged in a criminal investigation, a criminal investigation into media matters for them writing a story about Elon Musk. It doesn't get that much more dystopian than that. And Jordy, when you talk about this working for MAGA Republicans, it does for legacy media. You could be like, you just attack legacy

media all the time. Look, there are some good reports. I don't like attacking legacy media. The fourth estate is so important to a thriving democracy. By the way, in a fascist regime, the fourth estate is going to be the first to go. But how they can see the fluorescent light and like flies and mosquito go right into that fluorescent light of fascism. It's so obvious. It's so baffling to me. And so let me give you my criticism right now with real world examples of legacy media coverage, coverage of Biden, coverage of Trump, all in the 24 to 48 hours. Then let me show you what Donald Trump did in Fort Dodge, where you remember in the past if a politician would spell potato the

wrong way or go, woohoo, heck, they swift boated John Kerry saying he was not courageous enough in Vietnam, which is totally false. But think about that line of attack, not courageous enough in a war zone as a wealthy affluent person who sacrificed his life or anybody who sacrificed their life. Whereas Donald Trump, wealthy affluent person, got five deferments, made up bone spurs, attacks the military daily, attacks our generals, says they're suckers and losers, but Donald Trump gets a pass for them. Look at these headlines from just the past 24 to 48 hours regarding President Biden. So it's President Biden's birthday, first and foremost. Happy birthday. So here's the headline from the New York Times. For an aging president, a birthday with a bite. President Biden has no plans for a lavish public celebration when he turns 81 on Monday as Democrats strive to assuage voters' concerns about his age. He's like basically the same age as Donald Trump. They're basically the same age. As Keith Edwards, Democratic consultant, put out, Trump, half the country is vermin. Biden

has a birthday. The media, they're both equally bad. Let's go from New York Times to the Associated Press. Here's two headlines from the Associated Press over the past few days. Biden says he's an optimist, but his dire warnings about Trump have become central to his campaign. I thought you were an optimist there, Biden. You're criticizing Donald Trump and calling his political enemies vermin and saying he wants to exterminate his political opponents and talking about golden showers and hookers? How dare you, President Biden, call out his views? So negative of you to bring that up. So negative. You're bringing us all down. You should be praising him just like we do.

Donald Trump talk about golden showers and hookers in small high school gyms. What are you doing criticizing that behavior? Here's another headline by the Associated Press. They're like digging deep. Why Americans feel gloomy about the economy despite falling inflation and low unemployment. Maybe because it's you, idiots. Yeah. I think the article should just be a picture of a mirror and with their photo on it because, yeah, it's because you run headlines like this every single day where good news is bad news. And like with people are constantly injecting this into their media ecosystem every single day. Yes, of course, they're going to feel a certain way, even if the facts are right.

I mean, that's how propaganda works. Let me show you now the story before going into the clips of Trump in Fort Dodge in a small high school gym, which by the way, he bragged about. No one's got a crowd the way I did at this gym. We're showing a photo of the gym. It's legitimately just a basic high school gym that we're looking at here. It's a basic high school gym. It's like a school assembly. Yeah. It's like not even though. It's become a tradition. It's become a past even, not even though. And it's become a tradition. It's become a pastime of the Midas Touch podcast at this point, where every time we see a Donald Trump speech in one of these locales, I go, I need to see how the local media covered it.

I have to see. We need to check what are the local papers saying? Because this is how most people, a lot of people in these areas are getting their news. So let's check how they are. And when I saw this one, I said, Ben, Jordy, oh my God, you have to see this. And Ben, I'll let you take it from there. I mean, it's like fascist AI. It's like if you put in chat GPT, propaganda, 10 out of 10. Putin style, you check, yes. Speech in Fort Dodge. Speech in Fort Dodge, fill in the rest. Then they write this speech. It's the same one I see in New Hampshire. It's this every time you go, they all read like this. Pull up the article right now,

there it is. Trump promises action on border. By the way, isn't that something he promised back in 2015 and 2016? Wasn't his central freaking promise that Mexico was going to pay for the wall, which they absolutely didn't do? And then in the speech, he's like, I never said they were going to do it. They paid for some troops and I said a fraction of the wall. Okay. Well, that's a total, that's where he goes with this now. But no, let's go back to that headline. Let's run with the headline. Trump promises- And this is the messenger and it's the Fort Dodge, Iowa- Trump promises action. He promises a lot of things. He promises freedom cities,

whatever the hell that means. He promises baby booms. He promises the dumbest shit because he just says anything possible to appease people because he's a con artist. He promises everything to everybody but stands for absolutely nothing but himself. And Bill Shea, who wrote this, you're the first to – they're coming after you first. They're coming after media first. That's why it's so absurd. So here's the fascist AI article. With some 2,000 people cheering just about every sentence he spoke, former President Donald Trump declared in Fort Dodge Saturday that he would seal the southern border, drill for domestic oil, and prevent World War III. By the way, there's more drilling for domestic oil right now than under the Trump administration. So like, can we just get our facts straight? That is a fact. He's going to prevent World War III. I don't know, maybe emboldening Vladimir Putin and basically having secret meetings with him in Helsinki and then extorting Ukraine and then freeing 5,000 Taliban prisoners who then became the leaders of Afghanistan and not consulting with the actual Afghan government and then trying to undermine all of foreign policy. Maybe that contributes to some world

issues. I don't know, but those are just facts right there. And maybe also not adding $8 trillion of debt would have been a solid thing as well. But whatevs, let's go back to the article right here, pull it up. Quote, every sane person without what they call Trump derangement syndrome, a great honor to have a disease named after me, wants to get back to how great we had it under the Trump administration. He said, quote, Joe Biden's banana republic ends November 5th, 2024. And if it doesn't, we don't have a country anymore. He added, speaking in a packed gymnasium at Fort Dodge Senior High School, the former president declared that his Make America Great Again organization is the greatest movement in the history of the country.

During his one-hour, 15-minute speech, the former president heaped insults on his opponents. He consistently referred to President Joe Biden as Crooked Joe Biden. He referred to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, one of his rivals, for the Republican presidential nomination as, quote, Ron DeSanctimonious. And he referred to Nikki Haley, spelled wrong, another Republican candidate who served as his ambassador to the United Nations as, quote, bird brain. But his pledge to seal the border between the United States and Mexico drew the most thunderous applause, quote, and with the border, no more coming in unless you

come in legally, Trump said. With that comment, the crowd was on its feet. It began chanting, USA, USA. A beautiful chant, Donald Trump replied. That is how they... That's wild. And it's something that we've kind of said mockingly. When we've talked about these articles, we always speak about, and they got up and they applauded and they were like, Trump, Trump, Trump, we want more. That's how this is written. And that's how all of these are actually written. I think some people think we're just joking when we say that's how a lot of these local papers write about Trump when he comes into their neighborhoods. No, that is a real article that if Donald Trump wrote it,

you would roll your eyes at it. If that were a press release from Donald Trump's Truth Social account, you'd be like, oh my God, oh boy. This is an actual local newspaper that is supposedly, when you look them up, they're like neutral, neutral organization. They're unbiased, neutral. Midas touch when they write about lefty, leftist organization. How dare we call out Donald Trump speaking in a small high school gymnasium about golden showers with hookers? What a leftist position. So woke of you, Ben. How dare you call that out? But this is what we had talked about last week on the show, that these media companies, they just want to bend over backwards to a piece fascism. I don't know. So they don't get called out by, I don't know, some, some metric bar that labels you,

what your organization is that they care about. It's like, no, at the end of the day, if you just root yourself in truth and honesty, people are going to respect that way more than whatever the heck that is. You'd think the hookers getting peed on by hooker, you'd think that would make it somewhere in the article, like a line somewhere. Nope, that didn't happen. Even the footnotes, maybe in the footnotes, but no. What about bragging about being praised by the Taliban? And they called me, your excellency. They would never say that about Joe Biden. Or what about him saying, I'm against wind energy because when the wind stops, your TV shuts off. It's idiotic. Or how about the opening

where you have these weirdo, because MAGA republicanism just become, it's just a bunch of weirdos. How about a whole speech that this person did in a freaking Yoda voice? That's like, what are you doing? What is going on here? If you don't believe me, let's just go through Fort Dodge very quickly. I want to show the opening where one of the MAGA Republican state senators, Mike Sexton, for a significant period of time, does a Yoda impression. He goes, dark side in my goodness. And it's like, what are you doing? This is just freaking, this is some weirdo, weirdo crap right here. And then it gets weirder and more dangerous. Play MAGA Republican State Senator Mike Sexton doing a Yoda impression. The dark side is very powerful in Biden. Crooked is he. Your country, he does not care the force is strong in trump when he must

help him you can caucus for him you shall for without his victory all hope is lost now here is another mega republican state representative going back over the – and we don't kneel and we say Merry Christmas and there are two genders and there's so – there's such an idiocracy too that he even gets wrong the point he's trying to make because he's trying to be discriminatory. And then he says, you have two choices to make when it comes to gender. Because they, I said, it's fascism, idiocracy. Here, play this clip. Things were peaceful. Things also had common sense. Do you remember that? Little things, little things like we say Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays. We stand for the anthem, right? Because what does it mean when you kneel for the anthem? Kneeling for the anthem does not make you brave, it makes you a disrespectful little shit. and finally the ultimate return to common sense it's ridiculous i even have to say this but i will

there are two genders there's male and female you You get two choices. It's sir or man, period. How is that even real life? What is that that we were even watching? What are they cheering? Like, yeah, two genders. Yeah. Merry Christmas. How is this impacting your life in a positive way? He just named a bunch of things to get you mad about that you probably never even encountered once in your entire life in Iowa. I'm willing to bet that most of that crowd has never encountered any of this issue. I guarantee you most of them probably never had that bathroom situation he laid out. I could guarantee you they were never said Merry Christmas and someone was like, what did you say? Say that one more time.

Say that one more time. Say that one more time and see what happens. Merry Christmas. What? You're going to jail. We don't say that in Joe Biden's America. What is this world? And they're like standing ovation, like, yeah, he said it. He said it. And that's how they steal from these people also. They rile them up. They distract them with bullshit. And then they are able to basically get them to believe whatever they want. They're able to raid their social security. They're able to take away their Medicare and basically give all their money to people like Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

So good job. Keep applauding. But that's what's happening. How many millionaires do you think were in that audience right there or deca-millionaires who came out to watch that event? How many billionaires do we think were in that audience? Because the people in that audience, I assume, rely on things like the Affordable Care Act for their healthcare. I assume they rely on things like social security. I assume they rely on Medicare. I assume that they are beneficiaries if they are veterans of things that President Biden did. I assume that

they are the beneficiaries of benefits when it comes to educational opportunities that Biden's policies have provided. I assume that if infrastructure projects are taking place, and they're either working on those projects or adjacent projects where the economy is being helped, that they are benefiting right there. But they're there cheering over these MAGA Republican individuals talking about these issues that it's just bullying. It's anti-freedom. They're just chanting about bullying marginalized people and taking away their freedoms and just cursing. Going back to that MAGA Republican state Senator Sexton, here he has to ramp it up and goes on this anti-trans rant. I think in this one, he talks about, so pull up your jockstrap.

And it's like, pull up your jockstrap. What are you even talking about here? Play this clip. Are you ready for a president that will tell transgender males they need to put their jockstrap back on and compete with men and stay out of the women's locker room. No, no, I'm not. That doesn't never cross my mind once. I mean, this whole framing is just to get people angry. And these are really issues that frankly don't even exist. Like these are not problems that these people encounter on a daily basis. I'm willing to bet they've never encountered these issues in their entire life, but they're fed this diet of disinformation and I guess, anger attainment, if you want to call it that of watching Fox and Newsmax and OAN and being on social media where they're fed all this

stuff and they think they're supposed to be angry about things that if you drill down, I guarantee you, Ben, that you're absolutely right of the things that they need to actually survive and get through their days. Those are the things that are actually being taken away from them by these same people. Here's the thing. Propaganda is powerful. That's why it's called propaganda. There are billions of dollars, tens of billions of dollars being invested to trigger that reaction by allowing these people or feeding these people all of this information that's out there to denigrate all of these marginalized communities so that when these speeches take place, they know the response because they're living in this nightmarish world that the moment you turn on Fox or OAN or Newsmax or one of these right-wing networks. All they talk about is what a horror show it is. Then they also talk about how perfect things were under Donald Trump, as though we're supposed to not remember that people couldn't get toilet paper

under Donald Trump, that Donald Trump told us to inject bleach into our arms, that there were lines around the block of people lined up because they couldn't get food, that Donald Trump was throwing paper towels at people during major disasters, that there was $8 trillion of debt added on the Donald Trump administration, that all Donald Trump cared about was the billionaires and DecaMillionaires. I mean, those are just the facts. It was not a great period of time then. In fact, it was probably one of the darkest times ever in American history where we would turn on the TV and just see thousands of people dying every single day. Donald Trump shut it down with his behavior. That's what happened. How people can be like,

that didn't happen when that happened goes to show you the power of propaganda and the asymmetrical information warfare that is basically taking place, where you have legacy media basically simping for Donald Trump, where you've got all of the disinformation media injecting lies every single day, and where Democrats are ranked and rated based on having to be 100% perfect on delivering actual policy. Donald Trump, just in order for him to be viewed as a success, basically just doesn't have to eat his poop on stage. And it's like, okay, that must be a great individual. Wow. What an impressive feat that he did. And then even if he did do what I just said he did,

they would write the story the same exact way because that's basically what he did in this speech in Fort Dodge. I want to go over what he did in Fort Dodge. And I think it's important and instructive. Then I want to go and I want to show the – it's related. The MAGA Republican deranged conspiracy of fedsurrection and that their exhibit A was a convicted insurrectionist holding up a vape, which they said was a badge. And here's the thing. Most people, when you make a lie like that, you have shame. You have shame. And the MAGA Republicans, no shame at all. There's the vape that he had, which they said is a badge.

And then they just move on to the next one. And then they attack the Republican FBI director, like whatever, let's just attack the Republican FBI director. I want to talk about that. And we've got a very special after show on today's episode. We will be joined by Mama Midas herself. Let's go. Randy Micellus, our mom, will be joining us on the after show, exclusive after show. Does she know this? She doesn't even know yet, but she may hear me.

She's watching right now, so she just found out. Let's go. Let's go. That's patreon.com slash MidasTouch, P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com slash MidasTouch. Join us for the after show after this episode ends, and you'll get to meet Midas Mama herself, Brandy. She's visiting, and she's here with us right now. So excited to have that take place and maybe I think she's going to agree to do it. She'll do it.

Patreon.com slash Midas Touch. We'll be right back after this quick break. Let's go over Fort Dodge and then let's go over MAGA Mike releasing those J6 tapes and the FedSurrection conspiracy that they're spreading, which was instantly debunked. We'll be right back after this quick break. Cold turkey may be great on sandwiches, but there's a better way to break your bad habits. And no, we're not talking about some sketchy tips that you may get from that wacky uncle of yours over the holidays. We're talking about our sponsor, Fume, and they look at the problem in a different way. Now, not everything in a bad habit is wrong. So instead of drastic, uncomfortable change,

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Let's go. Great sponsors. Great sponsors that I noticed while we were away. First off, if you're in the market for those products, definitely use our codes. Helps the show and great products for your friends and family. I noticed during the break, we got a lot of new Patreon subscribers too. So I think a lot of folks are pretty stoked to meet mom, guys. It's a big moment.

It's a huge moment in Midas history. It is. Huge moment in Midas history. Let's talk about what is not a huge moment in American history, but a moment of infamy that needs to be called out is this Trump event, whatever you even want to call it, a traveling fascist circus in Fort Dodge. Let's talk about this speech that went out in a small high school gymnasium. A teacher from that high school reached out to me and said, if this behavior is normalized here, what am I supposed to tell

my students? Because you better believe it, Ben, our students here are watching this. That resonated with me so much to think about it like that. What message are we sending to future generations that this is the type of conduct? This is not who we are in the United States of America. I'm sorry. It is so disappointing. When I show you these clips and I show you this is the Republican position today, this is who they are. This is what the Republican Party has become as they've gone full MAGA. As I've said it, this shouldn't even be anymore a discussion about, okay, well, you got progressives and liberals on one side, and then you've got conservatives on the other. There ain't nothing conservative about what I'm about to show you. You want to talk about fiscal conservatism? Donald Trump added $8 trillion to the debt.

$8 trillion. Tea like Trump, $8 trillion to the debt. What else do you want to have? Small government. They want to impose a nationwide abortion ban. So they ain't small government. What else are you trying to tell me that is conservative about this movement. There is nothing. This is Donald Trump unprompted, unprompted, telling voters that he's not into golden showers. Play this clip. He was with four hookers. You think that was good that night to go up and tell my wife it's not true, darling. I love you very much. It's not true.

Actually, that one she didn't believe because she said he's a germaphobe. He's not into that, you know. He's not into golden showers, as they say, they call them. I don't like that idea. No, I didn't. I thought that would be a big problem. I was going to have a rough night, but that one she was very good on. She said. Could you imagine that that's what his stump speech is? He does that. And he's in a high school gymnasium. I just want to, I just want to remind everybody, imagine the outrage if Joe Biden went to a high school gymnasium and started talking about hookers peeing on him. Just like, that's what you just witnessed with Donald Trump here.

That's what happened. I like that it's a bridge. That's a bridge too far, but being with a porn star, raw dog in a porn star, that's okay, but this didn't happen. There's just no moral compass. So, you know, we could juxtapose it against Biden,

but then also, Brett, to your point, he's in a high school gymnasium where Ben ran for student government, I ran for student government. That's where you would, you know, give your student government speeches sometimes. And so just imagine if a student from that school emulated the former president and said the things that he said. You think that student would get away scot-free without getting in any sort of trouble? Absolutely not. The lack of a moral compass for a leader at the highest level, not that he's a leader, but the idea and thought that he could be a leader to some and he behaves like that, it's despicable. You remember when he spoke in front of the Boy Scouts in 2017? And he gave this speech in front of the Boy Scouts. He said, y'all want to hear the story

about my billionaire friend and his wild sex parties on yachts? No, you're too young to hear it. You want to hear it? You want to hear it? Then he went in and told the story about a wealthy friend of his who did drugs and had orgies on yachts. He told the story for no reason. I mean, other than to degrade the discourse here in our country. These are the people, though, who want to ban books. The people cheering for him, saying those horrible things at Fort Dodge, they then want to, what I refer to as MAGA-splain, and then go, well, actually, this content right here is a little bit too – this is a bit too prurient. It looks like you are teaching AP, African-American history. I think that this is too

controversial. Meanwhile, Donald Trump's – it's like, what? And that's how they want this country to look. That's why I say MAGA is fascism plus idiocracy plus just gross. Here, Donald Trump brags about filling up this high school gym that he set the record for the high school gym. Play this clip. But we had him in Iowa and I want to just tell you I'm really honored. This is great turnout. This is a beautiful section. They said they said you broke the all time record in this building. So that's pretty good. But I'm thrilled to be back with thousands of proud, hardworking American patriots in the heartland of America really is. It's incredible people. You built this country. It's a high school gym. High school gym. That's where the speech took place. This isn't a crowd. This isn't like a Taylor Swift-sized audience of 80,000.

It's a high school gym. And in that high school gym, Donald Trump also praised President Xi of China, who he says is all-powerful. I call him the king. This is part of his stump speech. He talks about President Xi, who he says is all-powerful. He talks about Viktor Orban, the leader of Hungary, where there's 20% inflation and the entire annual GDP is $180 billion less than the annual revenue of Apple. He praises the Taliban first. This is him praising President Xi, part of the stump speech. Play the clip. He walked up with a man who looks like a piece of granite, right? He's strong like granite. He's strong. I know him very well. President Xi of China. And he's standing there, you know, he's a fierce, he's a fierce person. Now the press doesn't like it when I say good things about, but you know, what can I say?

He runs 1.4 billion people with an iron hand. And they say, oh, he said good things about him. No, he happens to be a very smart person. If I say a certain leader is smart, that's controlling a big part of the world, the press gets upset that I say smart because that's a good thing. No, no. Very smart people. These are very smart people. But they're dealing with very stupid people. Our leader, our leader is a stupid.

I mean, just think about that. Praising President Xi like that as part of his stump speech. Here, well, it gets worse. Here he brags that the leader of the Taliban was nice to him and called him your excellency. Play the clip. And he said, may I ask you a question, your excellency? He called me your excellency. I wonder if he calls Biden your excellency. He called me your Excellency. I wonder if he calls Biden your Excellency. I don't think so. Maybe he calls me, sir. He says, sir. He said, sir, your Excellency. I mean, all you have to do to play this guy is call him, sir, and your Excellency, and he will undermine all American. You called me your Excellency. I will free 5,000 Taliban prisoners now. Think about the context of it too. Perhaps he called you your Excellency because you freed 5,000 Taliban prisoners now. Think about the context of it too. Perhaps he called to your excellency because you freed 5,000 Taliban prisoners. You did that, Donald Trump. That's what happened

under the Trump administration. All that instability right now in Afghanistan, the reason why the Taliban actually has control of the country is because Donald Trump freed 5,000 Taliban prisoners. Well, these things have consequences. When you're responsible for $8 trillion in debt and you print more money than in the history of any other administration, that's going to have a consequence. When you run a total mess of a program called PPP, not TPP, and you let it run rampant with fraud, print money like crazy, where do you think inflationary forces stem from? When you think about the tumult in the world, where do you think it comes from? I don't know, maybe releasing 5,000 Afghan or Taliban soldiers without any type of plan at all. And then the leader of the Taliban who calls you your excellency is one of the people you released. I don't know. Maybe that's all connected. And it's right in front of our eyes. By the way, here's Donald Trump confusing the TPP with PPP. Play this clip. They all wanted to do it, but I just said, nope, I'm not going to let it happen. And I stopped PPP my very first week as president of the United States. Stop PPP. Could you just imagine if setting aside all the other disgusting stuff that he says, could you imagine if Biden just said that? It would be

front page on Washington Post or any of them. Who doubts that that would not be front page on major media if Biden confused the TPP with PPP? Here, Donald Trump says he opposes wind energy because his TV would turn off when the wind stops. Play this clip. Which is real energy, not intermittent wind. Darling, I'd like to watch the president on television tonight. Honey, I don't think we'll be able to. The wind is not blowing. Yeah, that's just not the way it works. It's the dumbest stuff that this person's saying. By the way, here Donald Trump pretends that he never said that Mexico would pay for the wall. Play this clip.

So many different things. I'll give you an example. So you know how beautiful the inauguration is. And you're walking up these beautiful stairs to Capitol. Everything's so beautiful. As I'm walking up, I'll be signing about four or five different documents. I'm not going to wait to get to the other. I may even have a very tiny little desk put on the 20th stair.

Because I always like to sign with a desk. Your signature looks much better than holding it up like that. But I may have a little tiny desk put up there so that I can sign on the border. I can sign, we're going to complete everything. You know, we built over 500 miles of wall, but we're going to secure our border. If we didn't have that wall, forget it.

And by the way, Mexico paid for a lot of it. You know, they had 28,000 soldiers that they paid. Couldn't get them to pay for the wall because there's no mechanism to do that how do they pay for a wall that we're building you know there's a little legal problem but they paid much more because they paid for 28 000 soldiers along the border that did a whole beautiful job you know with the bullets going both ways punch over here do you ever see what what And then let me show you this. I seem to remember some chants, Ben. I seem to remember some chants during the Trump campaign about building a wall. I seem to remember him claiming he built the wall, even though he didn't

build the wall. But it seems like he's now found out that that didn't happen, I guess. And now he's trying to gaslight them. I guess he needs another reason to actually, like another platform to run on now that he tried this before, he failed. I noticed actually Ron DeSantis is actually calling him out for it. And everybody, honestly, should call him out for it. It's like, yeah, he's promised this for years. He had everybody chanted at his rallies. Everything he promised did not come true.

In fact, it was like the opposite. It was just a total disaster through and through. Can we compare that, what you just saw, whatever that was, with President Biden? At or around the same time, let's just show what President Biden was doing. This is President Biden talking about labor and workers' rights. Play this clip. This framework will be a platform for ongoing economic cooperation. And we will continue working to better facilitate high standard trade that advances workers' rights with strong enforcement of labor standards. And every step, we have upheld our commitment to unions. Each of the framework pillars includes strong pro-labor outcomes that will benefit workers of all economies.

It's critical to building a stronger, fairer, more resilient economy for families across the Indo-Pacific. This week, my administration has launched our new global labor strategy to ensure that workers' rights are the centerpiece for economic strategy internationally as well as domestically. That's a primary concern to me. Last week in Illinois, I congratulated the UAW on their record contract with the big three u.s auto companies the contracts can lead to thousands of new jobs billions of dollars in planned investment to keep american auto industry strong and competitive and urge any company investing american enter into partnerships with the most highly skilled, engaged workers anywhere in the world, American labor. And folks, I asked the Treasury Department to do a study. When labor does well, what does that do to people, all other non-labor folks around the country? Everyone benefits. And by the way,

the reason many of you use labor is because they're the best workers in the world. I mean, do you want him to do a TikTok dance? Do you want him to do a TikTok? Would that be bad? I mean, what is it that you want him to do? What do you think the role is of the United States president? Are we electing a statesman or statesperson, or are we electing a WWE fascist character? I mean, what do you think the role of this position is? And there has been a decades-long battle to completely undermine and destroy confidence generally in our democracy. Yes, Donald Trump is the latest manifestation and a disgusting one at that, but there have been

efforts to erode government and protections and advancements. We'll show you part of that. And Brett, you and I and Jordi were talking about it this weekend. It's so beneath America, some of this stuff, all of this stuff. It is Putin, Kim Jong-un style stuff that you're like, it just makes you upset. We're so much better than this as a country. A little bit later, we'll talk about the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and how back then in the 1960s, Congress passed these sweeping legislations recognizing some of the systemic issues. Americans knew about that in the 1960s.

Now, in 2023, we have the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals undermine what Americans did in the 1960s to make sure that there was a right, a private right of action to challenge racist gerrymandering and all of this, the degrading of the Voting Rights Act. You have the Shelby case from 2013, it's before Trump, where they said, oh, the pre-clearance requirement in the Voting Rights Act where the DOJ or a three-judge panel first has to approve maps to determine if they're racist gerrymandering. So it's a prophylactic against these maps from being passed. In 2013, they said, oh, the formula is racist. The formula is racist that's intended to stop the racism. So when you undermine the 4A, Section 4A formula,

you get rid of Section 5, the preclearance requirement of the Voting Rights Act. And what happens? Exactly what Americans knew was going to happen in 1965. In 1965, they knew if you let state legislatures do their thing, they're going to come up with racist gerrymandered maps. So they'd have to submit it to a three-judge panel or the DOJ for approval. That's preclearance. 2013, they knocked that off by challenging the formula. How insidious. Oh, we actually think preclearance is okay, but now we're going to knock away the formula. Now the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals says, you know what? There isn't even a private right of action. Civil rights groups don't even have the right to sue. The only person who has the right to sue, according to an Eighth

Circuit opinion today, is the state attorney general. Really? The MAGA state attorney general, that's the line of protection. Congress knew better back in the 1960s. That's what preclearance was about. Now you have the courts undermining that. MAGA courts, that was an opinion today. By the way, that goes against the Supreme Court precedent as recently as 2022, the Supreme Court said there was a private cause of action. But these MAGA courts just don't care. It is Putin-style shredding the Constitution. And speaking about shredding the Constitution, I want to talk about what went down with the release of these January 6th footage videos, the surveillance videos released by MAGA Mike. I want to talk about

that and more. And I want to remind everybody on today's after show, we're going to have Midas Randy, our mom, get to meet her. Patreon.com slash Midas Touch, P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com slash Midas Touch for the after show. Our mom is visiting us here in California, so you get to meet her here on the after show. Make sure you are a member of our Patreon. When we come back, I want to talk about the fedsurrection conspiracy spread by these MAGA leaders, like a MAGA senator and all these MAGA House of Representatives because they have no shame. Then I want to talk about this alarming development with these Republican state attorney generals saying that they're investigating criminally against media matters

for its reporting on posts by Elon Musk. I mean, Brett, as you said it, it's just staring us in the face. That's like fascism 101, criminal charges. I mean, it'd be one thing if they filed – you could say, well, that's a bogus, completely frivolous defamation civil case. They're going to try to arrest media matters and throw them in jail? I mean, how horrific can you be with that? And then I want to talk about the visit by United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Keith. Talk about that. And we'll take our last quick break of the day. Did you know that your temperature at night can have one of the greatest impacts on your sleep quality? If you wake up too hot or too cold, I highly recommend you check out Miracle Maid's bed sheets. Inspired by NASA, Miracle Maid uses silver infused fabrics and makes temperature regulating bedding so you can sleep at the perfect temperature all night long using silver infused fabrics inspired by NASA miracle made sheets are thermoregulating and designed to keep you at the perfect temperature

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And as a reminder, you know, all the links and by the way, links to all the sponsors and links to all the podcasts on the Midas Touch Network. You could always find those in the description below. You know, it's funny with this MAGA mic thing, the January 6th footage, we were speaking about this actually on the last episode. We were just talking about it. I said, it's been like a bit of a catch-22 for these Republican speakers where they go, they promise that they're going to release the footage and then it comes time, and then they have to make excuses or they have to figure out alternate plans.

So like I was saying last time, they're never just going to in mass release all the footage. That's not going to happen. So they gave all the footage back in the day to Tucker Carlson, remember, and what did he do? He took one 30 second moment of the QAnon shaman walking down the hallway and he goes, look, you see? You see? We told you. nothing happened. And that was the best he could do before he was ousted. And so now you got MAGA Mike Johnson out there and he claimed, he made these claims. I am releasing all 40,000 plus hours of the January 6th footage so that he got the headlines from the various media. In reality, he did not release all 40,000 hours. He released about 90 hours of footage, which is a mere fraction of the 40,000 hours. And he released footage, unsurprisingly,

of moments before things got violent. And then he had all these MAGA influencers start to dig through it and pick through these moments and go, look, they're just walking down the hallways. Look, they're being nice to those officers. Look, the officers are being nice to them. And to that, I say, yeah, if you filmed bank robbers going to the bank, you'd be like, oh, look, they're driving nicely. Look, they're being so friendly to the security guard at the door. Oh, this is all fake. They didn't do anything. Yeah, maybe you should focus on the moment that things happened. I think I brought up the 9-11 hijackers last time. If you took a video of them

going through airport security, I'm sure they were quite nice to the security officers at the airport. I'm sure they were quite nice at the gate getting on that plane and to the stewardesses before the event actually happened. What MAGA wants to do is they want to tell a big lie, a lie so big and so obvious, the same way that propagandists throughout history are. Because if they can make you believe absurdities, they could make you commit atrocities, as Voltaire once said. So the newest is they brought out this tape, right? And they focused on, of course, like one frame of footage where they saw this guy who flashed what is a vaporizer. It's a vape pen.

But they said, this is actually a badge. It's an FBI badge that he was flashing. And so this is the original picture that they posted that they were going, it's a badge. Look, an FBI badge. Here are three kind of MAGA blue check influencers on Twitter. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a badge with a red hat and fully disguised, heavily disguised Fed surrectionist showing badge in the Capitol on January 6th, Fed badge in his hand, face covering decoy, MAGA hat, blowing through security checkpoints. This is the story that they want to run with here. And now you don't have to pinpoint who this person is in the video because there are copious amount of records as to who this individual is because he is a convicted insurrectionist named Kevin Lyons, who was literally arrested, convicted, sentenced to 51 months in prison. He took photos himself where he stole images out of Nancy Pelosi's office and

posed with them. He stole a wallet from somebody who worked in the Capitol. This is somebody who there is copious amounts of evidence about. There's a long history and there are photos of him before he entered the Capitol where you could see much clearer that the thing they want to do. But this was being echoed by top people. And yes, these are top people in the Republican Party. And so we could look to Senator Mike Lee. Mike Lee was one of the biggest pushers of this lie. And Mike Lee, coincidentally, not so coincidentally, was also one of the people most tied to the January 6th insurrection. You'll notice that's a pattern in the people people most tied to the January 6th insurrection. You'll notice that's a pattern in the people who push the lie about January 6th.

They're always the people who are also trying to overthrow the results of the election. So here's Mike Lee's post where Mike Lee goes, I can't wait to watch FBI Director Christopher Wray to ask Christopher Wray about this at our next oversight hearing. I predict that, as always, his answers will be 97% information free. This is what they do. Christopher Wray, by the way, appointed by Donald Trump, a lifelong Republican FBI director. This should be somebody in any normal scenario that these Republicans love, but because he's not full MAGA and isn't willing to push their fascist propaganda and do their bidding from law enforcement like Ken Paxton is doing for Elon Musk down in Texas, he's a rhino and he's a liar and he cannot be trusted. That's how these things

work. While we're on the topic of Mike Lee, let me remind you a little of Mike Lee because Mike Lee was one of the biggest pushers of the Mike Lee because Mike Lee was one of the biggest pushers of the insurrection. And he was one of the guys who was texting Mark Meadows before the insurrection, trying to find a reason that he could use to try to overthrow the election. On November 20th, Mike Lee wrote to Mark Meadows, please, Mark Meadows, give me something to work with. I just need to know what I should be saying. Again, on the 22nd, Michael, he said to Meadows, please tell me what I should be saying. And he kept reiterating these points to try to get something that he could hang his hat on to overthrow the results of the

election. Now, the other person involved in this spreading of this conspiracy theory aside from honestly, most of the power center of the Republican Party is Marjorie Taylor Greene. Marjorie Taylor Greene, she at first posted the image of the individual who was holding this vaporizer and she spread the lie that this is in fact not a vaporizer, but it's an FBI badge and she went a step further And this is the way fascism works in other countries. This is the sickness. This is this fascist disease that these MAGA people have. It's not only that she's going to spread this lie, this heinous, obviously easily debunked lie, but her tweet calls for Mike Johnson to create a January 6th committee. She goes, now, releasing the tapes is not enough. We need to create our own January 6th

committee where we need to investigate the January 6th committee that existed beforehand so that they could be prosecuted and they could be locked up. That is what I would say is the actual weaponization of government, folks. Once again, everything they do is shielded by the terms that they try to use. Every accusation is always a confession with the Republican Party. You'll see. I want you to focus on it. They couch everything in these terms. And it's the same way dictators work throughout the country. You think Vladimir Putin goes through Russia and goes, okay, everybody, I'm a dictator. Look at me, fascist over here. You think this is how these people go through the countries? No,

they use the guise of, I am defending democracy. I am going to make Russia great again. That is what they say. And so we- These are free elections. These are free and fair elections. I won, I'm more popular. This is how they work. They don't say, I rigged the election.

They don't say, oh, I got 99% of the vote because I rigged it. That's right, you got me. No, that's not how these people operate. And it's not how MAGA operates because they're all part of the same kind of axis of evil around the world. If you look at Donald Trump's statements now, what does Donald Trump say? Donald Trump claims that attacks against him and that the prosecutions against him are not because he committed crimes,

allegedly, which I think is pretty quite obvious there. But instead, it's because they want to destroy democracy. If they go after Trump, they are destroying democracy. Because he wants to take that American iconography, he wants to take these terms, and he wants to flip them on their head. It's the same way all of these people work. And while we're on the subject of Mike Lee and Marjorie Taylor Greene, I want to go through a couple of videos because they're claiming that

these are feds. These aren't MAGA people. They're wearing MAGA hats. They were chanting for Trump. They showed up to this Trump rally. Seem to know a lot of Trump people. A lot of them have been convicted. A lot of them have a lot of history of wearing Trump gear and supporting Donald Trump and being in the Proud Boys and being in the Oath Keepers, like a lot of very, very obvious ties. However, Marjorie Taylor Greene wants to say, no, they're all feds. So let's look at Marjorie Taylor Greene speaking to what she now claims are feds, I guess, trying to rile them up and saying on the day of the insurrection that Nancy Pelosi committed treason and should be executed. This is a tape that Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on Facebook. I believe she deleted it, but we keep receipts

here and she does not want you to remember this moment. So I'm going to play it for you right now. She's a traitor to our country. She's guilty of treason. She took an oath to protect American citizens and uphold our laws. And she gives aid and comfort to our enemies who illegally invade our land. That's what treason is. And by our law, representatives and senators can be kicked out and no longer serve in our government. And it's a crime punishable by death is what treason is. Nancy Pelosi is guilty of treason and we want her out of our government. She's held her seat of power for 32 years. She's 78 years old. She is dying in Congress.

We are fed up with these corrupt politicians that hang on to their power just to make themselves rich. What was that Marjorie Taylor Greene inciting violence at the Capitol on January 6th? I think that's interesting footage. She wants to claim those are feds. She was telling, talking to. And what's with all the visits then to the January 6th prisoners, right? Is Donald Trump making some songs with the feds? Is the January 6th choir just full of FBI agents? The January 6th choir featuring the feds. Because I'm sensing a little inconsistency here between what they're saying and what they're

doing and who they're defending and what they did that day and what they continue to do this day. I thought about this other video that we put together here at Midas Touch, and I want to play it for you now. It's of Mike Lee. I think he's talking to the FBI director here, and he seems very concerned. Remember, I said his text messages, he was constantly texting Mark Meadows and other people in the Trump administration to try to figure out how he could overturn the results of the election. So when Mike Lee found out that federal investigators were probing the cell phone metadata of people who were around the Capitol on January 6th, I think Mike Lee and Josh Hawley, they were getting a little concerned, I would say. And so we made a video just to showcase, you know what? It seems like they're a little concerned

about something. Why so concerned, Mike Lee? Here's the video we put together. Are you geolocating people through the FBI based on where they were on January 6th? He asked you about the geolocation and metadata aspects and gathering related to, gathering of metadata that is, related to your investigation of the January 6th riot. Tell me what you know about this. So it was the FBI accessing cell phone tower metadata from telecommunications companies. Shortly after 2 p.m., as the siege was fully underway,

Senator Lee describes it, phone rang, it was Donald Trump. I hope you can understand my concern. Sure, you can appreciate my concern here. Ben, your thoughts? You know, as you were talking about how Vladimir Putin doesn't say, I'm a fascist, I'm a dictator. One of the things I was thinking about is, you know who is the ultimate gerrymanderer?

Authoritarians like Vladimir Putin. Perhaps the term gerrymandering gives cover to what's really taking place there. Think about how Vladimir Putin gerrymanders. If you're an opponent, he kills you. He just says that he totally takes away your vote. Isn't that the ultimate extension, state-sponsored execution as you take it all the way down to its fullest authoritarian end? Then you say, hey, this was a free election. And then you have a court that says, well, that was a free election. 90% of the vote is what's taking place. That to me is the ultimate gerrymander when you actually take it to its kind of darkest and most cynical conclusion, obviously. beyond repulsive that not only did the MAGA Republicans lean into just such absurd propaganda

with dangerous consequences, but also there is no shame. I can't even fathom saying a lie like that. Most humans, when you do a lie like that, you wake up the next morning and if you are sweating, you feel guilty and horrible. I mean, oh my gosh, I can't believe I said something. I posted a fake photo of somebody and I said it was a badge. I mean, I can't imagine. I really can't imagine. Not like I can't imagine. I can't fathom the feeling I would have in my like just lying to people. And I think that's what they rely on is that most people will say, you can't be lying about it. No one would actually do that. Yep. Yep. They do it and they do it every day. Why? Because they just don't give a crap and they are craving for power. That's why they are doing it.

Yeah. And it's the same reason why Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion. Not so he could make money per se, but so that he could use it as a platform to pump out disinformation out there, so he could elevate the lies, so that he could suppress the truth. And that's exactly what he's doing every single day. I just want to call it out for what it is. And I want to call out these blatantly authoritarian actions that are being taken by Republicans across the country. And we spoke about before what Ken Paxton was doing because Media Matters reported accurately on Elon Musk and said some mean things about him. So now he's threatening to do a, he did launch a criminal investigation against them. This guy, Mike Davis,

he's one of Donald Trump's top, if not the top pick for attorney general, if Trump were to win a second term. And I just want to show his statement quickly because it all ties together about how these Republicans plan to weaponize the government against their political enemies. Here's what Mike Davis said. Remember, this guy is Trump's number one choice, number one choice right now for attorney general. He's attacking Mehdi Hassan at MSNBC. He goes, Mehdi Hassan is now on my list to indict, detain, six, denaturalize, and three, deport. I already have his spot picked out in the DC Gulag, but I'll put him in the women's cell block with Tim Miller, who's a political strategist who I'm sure many of you know. So these whiny leftists don't

get beat up as often. This is Donald Trump's number one pick for attorney general, threatening to indict, detain, denaturalize, and deport MSNBC host Mehdi Hassan, throw him in prison, and throw in prison a political strategist who they don't agree with. By the way, pull that up one more time so people can see what he was responding to. You see what Mehdi Hassan wrote that should never- What would a second Trump presidency without any adults in the room actually look like? And it's Mehdi Hassan's report on what a second Trump term would look like now that he is able to bring in people like this Mike Davis. It's entirely confirmed there that that's exactly what it would look like. That's why when we talk about at the outset of this episode, the failings of legacy media and how they want to say,

why are things trending great with the economy, but people feel a certain way. It's because ultimately the relentlessness of disinfo being injected on social media and from right-wing media, which is well-funded by billionaires and tens of billions of dollars. Then you have people looking for legacy media to accurately reflect what is happening, and they're just not doing it. They just talk about all these negative things about President Biden and frame positives as negatives. One thing I want to talk about also, though, while we're at it, though, is I just want to talk briefly about this gag order hearing in Washington, D.C.

Judge Tonya Chuck, in the federal judge, issued a gag order against Donald Trump because Donald Trump continued to engage in these horrific threats against the judge, against witnesses. He threatened to execute one of the witnesses, former Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley. He said, if you come after me, I'm coming after you. He attacked Pence. It's like enough is enough. The Supreme Court standard on this issue was confirmed by a 1991 case called Gentile, spelled G-E-N-T-I-L-E, versus the Nevada State Bar. The standard for whether in criminal cases like this, there can be certain restrictions on speech because mind you, we're in a criminal case with criminal defendants charged with

felony. It's a little bit different than just any type of other speaker in any other First Amendment context, but the standard is, would there be a reasonable likelihood of material prejudice caused by the statements of a lawyer for the criminal defendant or the criminal defendant? And if there is, there could be some limits. And it can't be like overwhelming limits, but there can be some limits in a gag order that's imposed. Ultimately, the question before the DC Circuit Court of Appeals in evaluating the gag order imposed on Donald Trump is the application of the genteel standard, which is, would Donald Trump's behavior cause a reasonable likelihood of material prejudice? The standard by Judge Tanya Chutkin is actually, she's saying not only

does Donald Trump pose a reasonable likelihood of material prejudice, but Judge Chutkin says the court makes a finding that Donald Trump posed a significant and immediate risk of causing harm to the court. So it even is subsumed within the genteel standard, but the genteel standard, I believe, is even kind of looser than the standard that was applied and the findings that were made by Judge Chutkin. The various judges, and you should go and listen to on our YouTube where we have the full hearing, all two hours of it, because I think it does give some confidence in our judiciary and why our judiciary is so important. Because you see or you hear Donald Trump's lawyer trying to weasel out of everything as he's given hypotheticals.

He won't answer the question. He goes, well, I need more facts. And the judge is like, no, I'm giving you the facts. These are the hypotheticals. The day before trial, Donald Trump makes a post and says, former Vice President Pence still has a chance to redeem himself if he does the right thing tomorrow. And then Trump's lawyer would be like, well, I still think I need a little more info. And the judge would be like, you need more info than that? More info than what I just told you? That's all the facts you're going to get. And basically, they got Donald Trump's lawyers to all but admit that their position is that

Donald Trump should basically be able to say anything at all. And then the judges are like, you can't possibly believe that he's above the law, right? And Donald Trump's lawyer basically said, yeah, I think that he's above the law without using those exact words. And look, these judges were sharp and they were critical of the government too. They said, are you appropriately balancing though the first amendment concerns here? Because the government was saying things like, well, when Donald Trump calls the prosecutor a liar or says those things, that should be prohibited. And by the way, Judge Chutkin doesn't say that. Judge Chutkin basically draws a distinction and Judge Chutkin gave all of these examples where there would be findings that

would be made. And so the three judge panels, like doesn't judge Chutkin have it right? And government, I think your standard is a little bit not recognizing the importance of the first amendment enough. And Trump's standard would allow people to say anything at all. And I think that's a fair read of, of what it is, you know? And that's why, as i always say like i i use the word simping before because that's what the cool kids say right now is it is it like that it is it is that ben's hip with it he gets it i'm i'm i'm i'm here by the way my mike lee a united states senator his screen name is based mike lee like that's like an expert based michael like and And he blocks my touch too. And by the way, like, here's the thing. I think that we should view with a critical lens things that the FBI does. We shouldn't just

be like the FBI and the government do all of do whatever you want. And because it's Jack Smith, or because it's the prosecutors, you know, they're, they're always right. No, not, not at all. Where they are conducting, though, investigations that are filled with evidence that we can see of insurrectionists, and then the MAGA Republicans want to claim that vapes are badges, that's where I go, no, I'm a law and order Democrat. I want to follow the facts. Where the government doesn't follow the law and order, I want to be critical of them. I want to be critical if there's law enforcement that behaves poorly. I want to be critical if there's FBI that behaves poorly. I want to be critical. We should all be critical

of those things, but we should also look at evidence and look at the facts. We all saw what happened on January 6th. We have to then say, well, what is it that these MAGA Republicans are trying to achieve? What they're trying to achieve and where the legacy media would have us head towards is a country that frankly does look a lot more like Russia than looks like America. That looks like a strong man, authoritarian, who doesn't follow any of... They're telling us, right? They have their Project 2025 and this and that. They give it all of these names, but it's fascist. Call it whatever you want to call it. It's fascism. They want a dictator over democracy. They want a dictator over democracy. Let me repeat that one more time. They want a dictatorship over democracy. I think it is so

incumbent upon all of us to say, no, we are a democracy. We don't want a dictator. That's why we fill these episodes with facts. We fill them with facts. You can see them. You can read the filings. You can look for yourself at the post. You can hear the audios. And then you can assess for yourself how you feel. But we're not going to show you vapes and say they're badges. That's not what we do here at the Midas Touch Network. So I do want to reflect on the fact that I think it was important that the support internationally of American democracies, right? So as we know, the Secretary of Defense was in Ukraine. Again, Lloyd Austin arrived in Kiev on Monday morning for an unannounced visit because MAGA Republicans are simping for Putin. They are doing everything they can for Vladimir Putin. They went from tear down the wall, Mr. Gorbachev, to tear down Ukraine, Mr. Putin, and take Poland and take Europe and then do whatever you want to do. It's absurd that that's the party that they are, but we just have to call it that's who they are. And so Defense Secretary Austin showed up to instill confidence because these MAGA Republicans are refusing right now to fund Ukraine because they're all buried in Marjorie Taylor Greene style conspiracies and all things that Putin is serving them.

It's wild that that even exists today, but that's what's happening. Austin announced more military aid to Ukraine and pledged long-term support amid growing concerns about the sustainability of vital US assistance as a result of the GOP's refusal to vote for Ukraine aid. That's important. You won't hear a lot of legacy media talking about that. Instead, they're going to give you these headlines, for an aging president, this is a birthday with a bite. Biden says he's an optimist, but his dire warnings about Trump have become central to his campaign. Why Americans feel gloomy about the economy despite falling inflation and low unemployment and good economic indicators. What? And look, it is incumbent upon us then, this community, this unapologetically pro-democracy community,

to not just watch these episodes, but then to share these episodes with everybody we know. That's going to be the difference maker in 2024. It's going to be this pro-democracy community spreading the truth. Just think about it. If there are more people who are watching the Midas Touch Network right now than CNN or Fox or MSNBC on digital. And that's a fact, thanks to your support. If we're not just collectively consumers of this information, if we are actual individuals who then go out into the community and share the truth, share these pro-democracy messages, share the facts, that just doesn't exist really out there. This community that you all built, I think will absolutely be a deciding factor in 2024. The best day to get

started is yesterday. The next best day is today. Make sure you're registered to vote. Make sure you're registering other in the pro-democracy community to vote. Speak to your kids, your grandkids, your cousins, your neighbors. Let people know. We have a great series that we do on the weekends where we talk about people leaving the Republican Party because the Republican Party has left them and gone full-blown MAGA, where we talk to people who consider themselves conservative and goes, this MAGA thing ain't conservative at all. We see that over and over again. Fundamentally, what 2024 is going to be about is democracy over dictatorship. It's going to be about real freedoms, not this performative thing that MAGA Republicans try to do.

Real freedoms that MAGA Republicans are trying to take away our freedoms, trying to take away women's reproductive rights, trying to take away information, trying to take away our democracy. And as we said earlier in the show, they're telling us who they are. We can see it now. We need to show people. It's right there for everybody to see. We can see it when they do it. When Ken Paxton says, I'm doing a criminal investigation, they're giving us the plan. When Donald Trump's number one pick to be the attorney general says, I'm going to put

Mehdi Hassan in a gulag and I'm going to put some other person in the woman's jail because they're criticized. They're telling us. When Donald Trump gives speeches and praises the Taliban and talks about golden showers or whatever, they're telling us. When he praises President Xi, they're telling us. It's right there in front of us. I know this community is going to come together as we always have, as you've created this community, all the Midas Mighty out there. We're honored to be a part of this community that you created. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm excited for our after show. We may hit 11,000 patrons right now. Let's go. Because everybody is excited to meet our mom, Randy, myself, aka Midas Randy.

Go to patreon.com slash Midas touch, P-A-T-R-E-O-N.com slash Midas touch. If you want to meet our mom, just the way the after show works, everybody. So, you know, about a half hour, 45 minutes it takes to load because we actually have to record it. And our mom just arrived. So it's going to take us like 10, 15 minutes to do the after show podcasts. And it's one of the ways to support this independent media platform. We'll have fun. You'll get to meet our mom.

And you've all asked to do that. So go to patreon.com slash Midas Touch. But also we don't have outside investors at the Midas Touch network, which, as I've said before, was probably not the best business model, but actually it was when you think, because we don't have to have outside investors telling us what to do. So, you know, we fund this thing with pro-democracy sponsors, with emojis, like the emojis that you see here, and with our Patreon. And of course, with our pro-democracy gear at store.idasTouch.com as well. You see Brett and Jordy wearing all the gear, 100% union made, 100% made in the USA, store.MidasTouch.com. All right, time for our after show at Patreon.com slash Midas Touch. We're going to be recording that now. Meet Mama Midas.

Let's go. Excited. Patreon.com slash minus. And by the way, thank you, everybody. We're so grateful for you. We're so grateful for your support. And we're calm. We're confident. We're ready to go into 2024. We're going to do this together. And I want you to know that we feel very, very confident about 2024.

Democracy will prevail. Love will prevail. Compassion will prevail. We're going to do this together. I'm Ben Micellis. Thank you so much for watching. Hit subscribe. Help us get to 2 million subscribers, and we'll see you on the next Midas Touch Show. Jordy, take it away. Shout out to the 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.

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