The MeidasTouch Podcast - Trump LOSES IT as Lincoln Project Founder Reed Galen DROPS THE HAMMER

Episode Date: August 4, 2024

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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Donald Trump's morning is going from bad to worse. We had previously reported about those fundraising numbers where Vice President Kamala Harris more than doubled Donald Trump's fundraising for the month of July, and she did a lot of that just in 10 days. Now, Donald Trump's campaign manager, Stephen Chung, making very odd posts. He's posting this trigger warning for Kamala HQ staff run by bullied interns. And I think he's referencing this horrible interview this morning that Shady Vance did

with some podcasters called like the Nelk Boys from Canada. It's like a right wing podcast where he was sitting in that way on that sofa chair. The whole thing was very weird. Donald Trump then did this interview where he was very defensive about not wanting to debate and why he's not going to debate. Can we just show that clip for a second? That's all Trump's, you know, not doing the debate. That's the same thing they'll say now. I mean, right now I say, why should I do a debate? I'm leading in the polls. And everybody knows her. Everybody knows me. I got to bring in the co-founder of the Lincoln Project, Reid Galen. Reid now has started his own

organization that's independent. And he's got the sub stack as well. The sub stack's called Homefront. Reid, welcome to the show. What do you make about all of that? Well, first and foremost, thanks for having me. Second, look, I have been in politics a long time, and there are days and weeks when you just can't do anything right. No matter how good or bad your candidate is, you get off on the wrong foot. And I think that both Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are on their heels. I think that as pro-democracy advocates, we should keep them there. But I would say this is that the Harris campaign has done a very good job of fighting Trump on his terms, which is they stay in his face. They don't let

him go. The National Association of Black Journalists interview, you know, some friends and I were talking yesterday. We were trying to like, was it that bad? Was it really as bad as we thought it was? Because how could they have thought this was a good idea? And then you mentioned J.D. Vance, who in that interview, you know, mentions that he told his son to, quote, shut the hell up because he was trying to talk to Donald Trump. So what I would say is this, is that he had upset or offended all of the people who didn't have kids. Right. And now he has offended all the people who do have kids. So what I would say is that, you know, they are in quicksand. It is getting deeper. And you can tell that Trump doesn't like being there. And frankly, that makes me very happy. Reed, let me show you the moment

where J.D. Vance was sitting on that couch in a very kind of weird posture as well. They surround him by like beer, which makes it look extra kind of inauthentic. And he's there. He's like trying to bro out. It's obvious that he's like playing this cosplay character. And he's saying that his son was playing Pokemon and his son was talking about Pokemon. He goes to his son. He says, shut the hell up here. Let's watch what he said here. Play the clip. So I'm like, oh, no said here play the clip so I'm like oh no so I call Trump and I'm like hey sir what's going on he's like JD you missed a very important phone call and now I'm gonna have to pick somebody else and I'm you know I like tense up and almost have

a heart attack and the the crazy thing about it is my son who's seven is in the hotel room with me and he's really into Pokemon cards right now. He's going through a Pokemon phase. Are you guys into Pokemon? I am. Back in the day, yeah. That's a big phase right now, I think, in general. Yeah, yeah.

So, I mean, he's really into it. So, he's trying to talk to me about Pikachu. And I'm on the phone with Donald Trump. And I'm like, son, shut the hell up for 30 seconds about Pikachu. It's the most important phone call of my life. Please just let me take this phone call. Reid, I want to just break that down into two components. Obviously, him telling his son to shut the hell up. But what about the first part where he says Donald Trump called him and he almost had a heart attack at the call because this was the most important call in

his life. And he was terrified, essentially, that Donald Trump was calling him. He's a United States senator, and Donald Trump is currently playing golf. Here's what Trump's surrogate posted about him. This is Laura Loomer, one of Trump's top surrogates. She was bragging that Trump just made two back-to-back eagles on par fours, Reed, using the same pitching wedge from 140 and 142 yards. This is what Trump is having his surrogate post. And you have shady Vance terrified that he's getting a call from someone. You're a U S Senator. Come on. Yeah. I look, I think this is the,

remember that we're not dealing with a political party anymore. We're dealing with an authoritarian movement and the Republican party is its political wings. And, you know, it puts candidate up candidates up for, for office, it raises money, et cetera, et cetera. But that Trump is the leader, right? He is the dear leader and here's JD Vance, right? This is what he wanted, right? He sold everything. He sold his soul. He sold every scrap of dignity he might have had for this moment. Right. And even still, he's scared. Why? Because what if Trump's calling to tell him, no, he didn't get it and his hopes would be dashed. And so what I would say is this is that, you know, Vance, you know, between the beer and, you know, look, he also thinks it's like a flex to tell his kid to shut the hell up. Right. That's like that's a cool thing. And these guys are so bro-y and funny. And so,

yeah, I just think the whole thing is strange. And you've heard from everybody saying, oh, they're just weird. I think that started maybe with Governor Tim Walz. And they are weird. And these are not people that should be anywhere. Look, they shouldn't be guests at the White House, right? They shouldn't get badges to visit the White House, let alone work and live there. Reid, one of the things that led to the Lincoln Project forming is that there was all of this chaos out there. MAGA had built their Death Star and they were messaging using the tactics of fascism. And the Lincoln Project said, look, we have to call them out every step of the way. We got to bring the powerful messaging, the rapid response back into the political fora. And now you're seeing, though, these pro-democracy Democrats like Governor Josh Shapiro pushing back

hard. You've got Andy Beshear in Kentucky. It's like a new generation of Dems who also are kind of using that playbook. I want to share with you these two clips, and I'd love to get your take on it. The first is Governor Andy Beshear from Kentucky. Here's what he had to say. He's on one of my favorite podcasts. It's called I've Had It. Here's their teaser, but watch him mock Shady Vance. Play this clip. Had it or hit it, Diet Mountain Dew. Okay, I beat up on Diet Mountain Dew too much, so I will say in this one, hit it. This is not Diet Mountain Dew's fault that J.D. Vance made a joke about racism. It's unbelievable.

A joke about racism, But should we be surprised? Because in the course of a week, J.D. Vance made a joke about racism. And then Donald Trump was just blatantly racist the other night with the journalists. Birds of a feather. But he ain't from Kentucky. He ain't from Appalachia. Yeah. And he ain't going to be vice president of the United States. And then here's what Governor Shapiro said from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania moments ago. Let's play it. Governor, J.D. Vance just said this about you, and these are his words. Quote, he compared you to a really bad impression of Barack Obama. What is your response to that? Is that what he said? That's great. I love how we get the real-time quotes here. I mean look, I don't know. Barack Obama was probably our most gifted orator of. J.D. Vance is a total phony baloney. He is the most inorganic candidate I think I have ever seen

on the national stage. He doesn't know what he believes, and that is why it is impossible for him to articulate a coherent message to the American people, because he doesn't believe it. This guy is not exactly off to a good start. And it is clear that Donald Trump really has buyer's remorse with his pick. So if he wants to sling insults in my direction, which I'm not even sure is an insult, let him do it. That's fine. Bring it on. I'll be ready for whatever the hell J.D. Vance throws my way. Thanks, everybody. How to get your reaction to all that?

First and foremost, I think that obviously with the notable exception of Vice President Harris, who is from California, but has been vice president for nearly four years, Democrats do really well nationally with leaders who are from the upper Midwest and the South, because I think that they are, frankly, fly over countries, a closer approximation of the real world than California, New York, Washington, wherever it might be. Second, look, this is a new generation of Democrats. They understand the nature of the media, of social media, of what it takes to fight in a modern political environment. I am very happy to see it because this is the one thing I've seen as I've observed Democrats

for nearly five years is first and foremost, I'm a former Republican, right? You tend to be better people from a political standpoint than we are. But you also tend to be concerned that that kind of edgy stuff does not appeal to some intellectual base that the Democratic Party has. When in fact, I would say this is that the Lincoln Project is proof positive that Democrats love fighters. They love people who punch back and you should do more of it. Right. You know, and they both showed that you can be funny, decent, cutting, sharp and completely diminish your opponent without having to resort to the tactics or the words or the belief systems, frankly, of a Donald Trump or a JD Vance. So I say, bring it on. Reed, tell us about the organization that you're leading now, the union, what its focus is on, and how you believe it's an important force in the pro-democracy movement. And there are people who are watching this who may say, look, Ben, love the Midas Touch videos that you're

doing. We want to get involved though. We want to be, we want to put what you're saying into action. Tell us about it. Yeah, sure. So, you know, the union, jointheunion.us, we actually started it up within the Lincoln Project back in about March of 2022. And this was a companion from a grassroots perspective

to the ads that you've all come to, I hope, know and love from the Lincoln Project. And so as of early July, we have spun the union out. It is now an independent entity. And we operate in all 50 states. We have about 50,000 volunteers, about 12,000 of those are active. We have particular organizations in what we call our existential states. So we'll be focused on Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. And we have more than 100 partner organizations that we assist both with manpower, with the idea of, okay, we have a big bullhorn. Who needs help? And at any given time, we have nearly 2,000 volunteer opportunities that are on the union website.

Again, jointheunion.us that you can click on. And we update those every single day. And so we are not only providing the troops on the ground for our allied organizations, but we will also be digitally targeting soft Republicans and conservative leaning independents. We have two main groups of those. The first we call are Dobbs dads. They're like me. I have teenage daughters that believe that what we see out of the Republican Party of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance is antithetical to the party that we grew up with. This is not the party of individual liberty, but the party of centralized control. The second group of voters that we're targeting are what we call our Red Dawn conservatives. They tend to be a little bit older. They remember the Cold War. Maybe they're veterans. They've never liked Russia or the Soviet

Union as was back then. And they don't like what Donald Trump and J.D. Vance represent vis-a-vis national security. That could be Russia. That could be Ukraine. That could be NATO. But they see America as a leader in the world. And they see themselves as Americans as wanting to be that city on the hill. And they don't like the idea of kowtowing to dictators or strongmen for the sake of Trump's self-enrichment or, you know, J.D. Vance's ideological brainwashing that Ukraine should become yet another part of the Russian Empire. So we're very excited. You know, we've got less than 100 days to go. I hope everybody here who wants to get involved will do so. Again, we've got lots of work to do and we can always use more arms and legs and big brains to get it done. Reed Galen, thank you everybody for tuning in. And Reed, again, everybody can find the union at jointheunion.us, as well as they can check out the home front

on Substack. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 3 million subscribers together this month. Thanks for watching. Love this video? Make sure you stay up to date on the latest breaking news and all things Midas by signing

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