The MeidasTouch Podcast - Trump Under DOJ INVESTIGATION as Democrats Hit Their Stride (with Reggie Watts)

Episode Date: July 29, 2022

On today’s episode of the MeidasTouch Podcast, Ben and Brett discuss the MASSIVE tide shift as Democrats rack up a series of major legislative wins for the people and expose the cruelty and incompetence of the Republican Party. As Democrats work to protect freedoms and human rights, lower drug costs, and save the planet, Republicans are trying to ban gay marriage and voting to stop our toxin-exposed veterans from getting the healthcare that they so desperately need. New polls show that the American people are catching on. Later, we bring in comedian, musician and leader of the house band for the Late Late Show with James Corden, Reggie Watts, for a discussion about decency, humanity and pushing back against a toxic disinformation machine. We also hear about his plans after the Late Late Show comes to an end in 2023. Finally, the brothers end the show by discussing the confirmed DOJ investigation into Donald Trump and why Merrick Garland deserves more credit for his work. As always, thank you for listening and remember to subscribe, follow, rate and review to help us continue to climb the charts! New episodes of the MeidasTouch Podcast with the brothers are released every Tuesday and Friday, and episodes featuring our Meidas contributors are related every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday! Get official MeidasTouch pro-democracy merch: https://store.meidastouch.com 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. The Democrats introduce historic legislation. The DOJ has its eyes set on Trump, who it appears is directly under investigation by Merrick Garland, as we have always been saying he would be. And Democratic Senate candidates are leading the way and showing how Democrats can win. This is the Midas Touch podcast. Ben and Brett, not really sure where Jordy is. I'm not sure. He said there was a storm out in Pennsylvania. I hope he's doing well. I'm not sure, Jordy. For those who listen to the episode of the Mighty podcast. So we're doing daily podcasts now on this podcast channel, if you haven't realized yet, with featuring great commentary from our contributors. Normally, Jordy is the person who introduces those episodes. On today's episode, I introduced them. And I had mentioned that Jordy was suspended for a day because he made the bold proclamation that he was the favorite Midas brother.

I was joking, Jordy. He might have taken it seriously because he's not here right now. But Jordy, I was joking. I love you. It's OK. No, we're just kidding. Jordy's Wi-Fi is out for a storm. But we do have an incredible, incredible show for you.

Not only are we going to cover all those topics, but such a cool guest today, Ben. We got Reggie Watts. Reggie Watts joining the show, multi-hyphenate. He's a comedian, actor, musician. And of course, you know him as leading the house band for the Late Late Show with James Corden. You got to watch Reggie Watts, stand up Reggie Watts, just crowd work. He literally can do it all from his comedy routine to his music, to his beatboxing.

The music is honestly the cool. It blows my mind. If you haven't seen Reggie's music, you got to see everything. Reggie does go on YouTube and then search for Reggie Watts. But you look at his TED talk, look at all of his shows. He does like he uses a looping pedal and he builds all the songs like right in front of you. And he'll beatbox and like he'll gradually he'll start with the drum beat. Right. And then he'll start adding the keys in and then he builds the whole song right before the audience until he's got like this whole cool thing.

It's it's really one. He's one of the most talented dudes on the planet. Super excited to get just to hear about the late late show, to talk about politics with them. Curious to get into it. media. And it may be viewed as him being political, but the issues that he is talking about. Decency, protecting people, fighting for people's rights, I think, saying that we shouldn't take away people's rights. The fact that this has been publicized by a radical right wing right now who view those as, well, if you believe in helping the people, you must be a radical lefty out there. What radical views you have? And it's no, we want to helping people is just what government should do, what people should do, what businesses should do. We should be a caring and compassionate society. And that's, of course, one of our main messages here at Midas Touch.

And to that end, I'm really, really, really pumped about some of the great work that Democrats have done lately. Like over the last two to three weeks, Brett, the Democrats, what they've done on the Hill is fight the way they should always have been fighting. So to basically recap, the Democrats have introduced a number of very important bills to protect people's rights following the Dobbs decision, taking away a woman's right to choose, treating women as second class citizens, putting the government in the bedrooms, in the doctor's offices of women, which is just disgusting and despicable.

But Democrats have been introducing relentless bills, a bill to codify. You realize they realize they took your strategy. You know, they're listening to this podcast because Ben about a year ago said Democrats just need to be relentless every single week, every single day, release a bill, release a bill, get everyone on the record, make it happen. And now we've seen them put that into motion and they're doing a great job. I think finally, I think this week people are like, oh, look, the Democrats have some fight in them. Chuck Schumer actually knows what he's doing. People are actually getting their shit together. And guess what? They are out McConnelling Mitch McConnell and the Republicans are freaking out and the Republicans are freaking out because they are losing. But the thing is, when they are losing, Americans are winning because the things they are fighting against are all the things that are helping Americans. And there are things that really, I would say, probably close to 100 percent of Americans support Ben. And let's go through these bills. Let's go through the big wins for Dems. And obviously, there is also still, you know, some things to be done until we can totally celebrate a lot of these bills. But I think we at least need to appreciate what the Democrats have done to this point. I want to talk about the bills. Then first, the Democrats have introduced over the past two weeks, and then we'll bring it to what's occurred recently with,

of course, the introduction of the Inflation Reduction Act, which will drastically improve our health care system, drastically expands benefits under the Affordable Care Act, drastically reduces out-of-pocket expenses for people on Medicare. I want to talk about all of that, but let's just talk about some of the bills. First, codify Roe v. Wade. Republicans vote against it. Number two, Democrats vote to protect women who will be crossing the border from a state that doesn't allow abortion to get an abortion in a state that does allow abortion. All of the Republicans vote against it. The Democrats introduce a bill to protect victims of human trafficking. 20 Republicans vote against that bill. Democrats introduced a bill in Congress to protect our troops overseas who are exposed to toxic pits in war zones. Most of the most all

Democrats in Congress voted for it. It passed the House of Representatives. It got moved to the Senate. I'll tell you what happened in the Senate in a bit. Congress passed a bill to protect same-sex marriage. The Democrats passed that bill. And to protect interracial marriage, most Republicans voted against that bill. So that started kind of the Democrats saying, look, we're fighting for you. We're fighting for people. Republicans are going to take your rights away and we're going to prove it. They're going to vote against it. We even had Glenn Thompson Tom was a Thompson or Glenn Thomas, the Pennsylvania congressman who voted against gay marriage, voted against same sex marriage on a Tuesday and then attended his son's same sex marriage on a Friday and then gave a speech at the wedding about how grateful he is to have, you know, his son's husband in the family. You voted against their marriage.

Just the game to these people. It's just it's just a game. They're playing with people's lives and it's so messed up. So then the big news over the past 24, 48 hours is that the Democrats will be introducing historic legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, which Joe Manchin is supporting, by the way. And how do we know Joe Manchin is supporting it? He's the one who announced it. He's the one who announced that I will be supporting the Inflation Reduction Act. And the Inflation Reduction Act does some incredible things. It will reduce out-of-pocket expenses for Medicare payers. It will expand coverage under the Affordable Care Act. It invests up to $370 billion in climate change initiatives. It increases corporate tax to about 15% so that the wealthy are paying their fair share. Taxes

will not be increased on any family making less than four hundred thousand dollars and there'll be no additional taxes on any small business. It stops and prevents loopholes in capital gains earned interest. It really is. It for and improves IRS enforcement mechanisms. And Republicans completely flipped out against this bill because here's what happened. The Republicans. So right before the Democrats announced the Inflation Reduction Act, the Democrats were able to pass the Chips Plus Act, which invests more than $50 billion in the semiconductor industry because our military weapons, our computers, our phones, every electronic has semiconductor chips in it. And we are so reliant on countries like Taiwan and countries overseas that make it. And so you know those incredible weapons that are working in the Ukraine, for example, that has really turned the tide in favor of Ukraine again, when some of the momentum looked like, I mean, Ukraine's always

been crushing it. But when it looked like Russia may be kind of focused on, you know, certain regions in the east, well, those weapons, they have semiconductors in it that America is providing. And guess what? When semiconductor prices are high, that increases all prices. And that's a driving factor of inflation when prices are becoming high, when we're beholden to overseas interests that control the manufacturing of semiconductors. And we invented semiconductors here in the United States. So you would think the chips plus bill would be everybody would support the chips plus bill. But anyway, the Democrats were able to get around a filibuster because Mitch McConnell believed that he had a deal with Joe Manchin, that Joe Manchin would scuttle any efforts by the Democrats to introduce any package that looked like build back better. So what Manchin do the moment the 50 billion plus

semiconductor package was passed, boom, Manchin then announced, sorry, Mitch, sorry, Mitch, I am doing this bill, this package with the Democrats called the Inflation Reduction Act, which has all of those benefits, a massive, massive investment in our country. And the Democrats have achieved those are massive once in a generational. And the Democrats have achieved, those are massive, once in a generational bills, and we're going to get two of them, Bert. And can I just say, thank you for finally naming a bill something good. Thank you. Inflation Reduction Act. That's good branding. That's good messaging. You know that we talked relentlessly on the show about how much we hated the branding of Build Back Better. Right. I was not I was not shy about Build Back Better.

What is Build Back Better? Inflation Reduction Act is something that Americans can wrap their minds around. And it's something that becomes harder for Republicans to vote against. This is a very smart plan and it has very important things in it. We're still waiting for the full details of the bill, but it seems very promising. And especially, you know, on climate, that sort of stuff is is so important, especially now more than ever. But of course, Republicans, you know, didn't want to just take the L. So what they had to do is they had to turn their vengeance back on the American people. And in this case, they had to turn their vengeance on to veterans as despicable as it was. So basically what ended up

happening was in retaliation for the Democrats introducing this bill that would lower health care costs, combat climate change, help people with their prescription drugs. They said, oh, you want to help people with their prescription drugs and you want to combat climate change? Well, we're not going to help veterans who are exposed to toxins in burn pits. That's what we're going to do. And so then they went and they made sure that they voted against the bill that would give toxin exposed veterans added VA and disability benefits. I mean, you don't get much lower than that. If you want to talk about playing politics, you want to talk about radical. I never want to hear a day in my life ever again, any of these people saying that they support the troops or support our veterans. It is just unconscionable, unconscionable that you would do

this. And we even spoke about this, I think, in advance of this vote a week or two ago. We spoke about how Republicans have consistently voted against our veterans. We told people Republicans would vote against this. We said they're going to vote against all of these bills in the Senate, like they'll vote against giving veterans enhanced access to health care who are exposed to toxic pits abroad. Think about that. Republicans in the Senate voted against expanding health care access to our military veterans who are exposed to toxic pits. They were so mad that Democrats pushed forth legislation that would lower prescription drug prices that they told our veterans to go after themselves. I mean, it's it's just I mean, that's what happened. Like,

that's that's what happened. That's the Republican Party for you. And I think the people are starting to catch on to this. I mean, we're starting to see a lot of momentum in the Democrats favor, which I think is a really important thing at this time, which is why we need to keep hammering, you know, hammering home these messages every single day, day in and day out. I think for the first time, the 538 polls, the polls or whatever they do over there actually shows the Democrats being more likely than Republicans to retain the Senate. That's good news. I know the Cook Political Report has put 25 plus more seats back in the Democrat camp. They're still favoring Republicans and their

estimations there. But it shows you we need to keep pushing forward with this momentum because people are catching on that the Republicans aren't doing anything for you. And in fact, it's not only that they're not doing anything, they're actually working actively to hurt Americans, to hurt you, to make your life worse. You think your inflation problem is bad? Well, they want to raise your costs. They think your gas problem is bad. They want to raise your costs. You think any issue that we have in America will be solved with fascism. I'm sorry, you're wrong. And that's all the Republican Party has to offer. They just want to control you. They want to put their beliefs on you. They want to make sure that you have no more

freedoms left. You know, one of the things it's an advertising technique in order to persuade people. It's not just one contact that's needed to kind of get somebody to buy the product, right? The person has to see that product multiple times before kind of in their head, they're able to kind of start making and formulating an assessment. We say the same thing about the work we do at Midas Touch when we produce a video. I don't think that there's ever going to be one video or one 30 second ad and everyone's going to be like, you know what? I'm no longer the radical right are so warped. They're so down this rabbit hole that's taken place over a consistent period of time that there's no way that one ad they go, what? How did that happen? So you have to be relentless and constant and consistent with your messaging and your actions, not just messaging. People want

to talk about, oh, well, you got to be a better messenger, messenger, this messenger that messaging is important, but messaging needs to have the work and also the conduct actually consistent with it behind it. So to me, what the Democrats have been doing every single day, multiple bills, no matter where you go, you will hear a message and see something. Oh, that the Democrats are doing something. The Democrats are fighting for me. The Democrats have passed this legislation. The Republicans are blocking it each and every day, consistent, consistent, consistent. And that's why, Brett, to your point, when you talk about the overall polling, people like John Fetterman in Pennsylvania,

people like Tim Ryan in Ohio, people like Raphael Warnock, people like the Democratic candidates across the Senate candidates, across the board. These are people who are talking about fighting for their constituents, fighting for people, bringing benefits to people. I mean, these Republicans who are out there, the Republicans are the worst character of what they pretend Democrats to be. Oh, these Hollywood elites. You mean the billionaire, the billionaire, a reality star that that's the guy. I mean, in Trump, you know, the hundred millionaire like TV show doctor who's got a mansion in the other state. I mean, you know, J.D. Vance, you know, a San Francisco Silicon Valley, you know, whatever. I mean, these people and Democrats are running for the people, we the people.

And that's what people love to see. That's the message that I consistently you consistently, Jordi, our movement that Midas Touch talks about compassion, decency, helping people out. Yeah, no. And I think I think the Democrats actually deserve a lot of credit and a lot more praise than they've been getting. And I think that they're doing I honestly think right now they are hitting their stride. And I don't think it's too late. I think it's a perfect time for them to be hitting their stride. I think public opinion,

I think, is shifting rapidly with these January 6th hearings. And now every single speech, every single interview that these Republicans have to do, they got to defend a record of voting for higher gas prices, voting for human trafficking. Yes, of course, Matt Gaetz was one of those votes voting for banning contraception, voting for taxing families with kids, voting on a nationwide abortion ban, voting against marriage equality, against health care for veterans, against baby formula, against defending Ukraine. I mean, you put the list like that's what they have to defend out there. So that's pretty bad. So let's keep hitting them and hammering them on this stuff every single day. And now we actually have fighters out there who are doing just that

and are bringing the passion that we need to take on these corrupt fascist Republicans. I mean, that's what it's all about. Whenever some serious problem arises, because that's the world we live in, serious problems arise. Republicans take the serious problem in the most unserious way and then look at the problem as, OK, how do I make the problem worse? How do I hurt the most people? How could I make this problem have the maximum negative impact on people? Like even talk about it. Like, I don't know what's going to become of monkeypox. I know it's important that it's be taken a lot more serious. You know, I know that our top medical professionals out there, both in government and private practice,

have talked about the increased cases. They're taking it serious because we're supposed to care about serious ailments that could hurt and kill people. But the moment there is news like that happens, the Republicans go out there. I don't know. They do this really weird thing where they think they're like stand up comedians, like like they're such trolls and horrible people like their cadence and delivery i don't know if you know this like brett if you've like thought about this like you know the way jerry seinfeld goes up and goes what's the deal with they're all they're they're they go they're all trying to be bad insult comics no 100 they're all trying to be bad like they're

all trying to like do a roast than being bad in slow comics. And they all care so much about like their podcasts and about how many like views they get on things. And on the Democratic side, you see just like actual civil servants, are people who put their heads down and are actually doing the work and are, you know, going into the White House, going into Congress every day and trying to think, okay, how are we going to help people today instead of, all right, what can we do to cause some shit today? You know? I want to finish my joke. I was doing this Jerry Seinfeld impression. It was a good impression.

It was a good impression. It was good. What's the deal with popcorn sizes at the movie theater? You say it's a small, it's a large. What's going on with popcorn sizes? Stupid, I know. Great joke. Thank you.

Tell that one to Reggie Watts when he's here. Okay, I'll tell that to Reggie. But if you watch, play the clip right now, though, of first play Matt Gates. And this is a serious I mean, this is disgusting. Like Matt Gates is up there talking like a stand up comedian after Dobbs decision has taken away the woman's right to choose. He's up there like it's not even his like Matt Gates is trying to use the voice of a comedian, you know, where he's basically saying like, what's going on with women who are protesting because their rights have been taken away by the Dobbs decision. It's sickening, but like they view themselves as like, as like sick,

despot comedians. Play this clip of Matt Gaetz. Have you watched these pro-abortion, pro-murder rallies, the people are just disgusting. Like, why is it that the women with the least likelihood of getting pregnant are the ones most worried about having abortions? Nobody wants to impregnate you if you look like a thumb. How horrible, how disgusting. Then Matt Gaetz picks on, do you see this, Brett? Like a 17-year-old activist and has a Photoshop to try to body shame her. He takes a photograph of her, tweets it out, and basically has some horrible remark about her. She's done an incredible work. What's her name, Brett? Olivia? Her name is Olivia Giuliana, and you got to follow Olivia Giuliana. She does it with a zero in the beginning of her name on Twitter.

So it's zero Olivia Juliana with two N's. And she has taken this opportunity to fight back and troll Matt Gaetz. And here's the thing. You can't mess with Gen Z on this stuff, not on social media. I'm sorry, because you'll be shut down. And she took to Twitter. She took to TikTok. Her videos were getting over a million views each on TikTok. And she raised something like over last time I checked,

it was over 300. Oh, my God. I'm looking at it right now. She's raised over seven hundred thousand dollars for people to get abortion care. So Matt Gates is directly responsible for Olivia Juliana raising seven hundred thousand dollars in abortion care. And that's the kind of activism that we need. And that's what gives me hope for the future right there, to see Gen Z step up like that in a big way, turn a situation that could have been horrible, a sitting member of Congress, body shaming. And you're able to take that, not internalize it, but instead weaponize it against them. That is the ultimate power. That is the ultimate power. Could you imagine in any line of work other than being a Republican

fascist where during your workday, I'm a C-level executive, I'm an executive VP, whatever my job is, I'm a manager, I'm a sales salesperson and I spend my day using my corporate account to body shame students. And that's who Matt Gates, a sitting member of Congress, is spending his days attacking her after a horrific Supreme Court decision that treats women as second class citizens. Then play this clip of Marjorie Taylor Greene talking about she manages to combine mocking monkeypox and also mocking America's support of Ukraine in this one routine where she just gets on the stage and she marches around and she goes, hey, everybody, should we care about the newest thing? It's not Ukraine. It's monkeypox. Play that clip. You all think that Ukraine, some country, you know, a country next to another country called Russia is the most important thing you should care about. But we have a new global pandemic. Have you heard about this? Monkeypox. That's right. It's the newest thing. It's the newest thing. Listen, you guys have to update your social media right next to your Ukraine flag and your mask emoji and your vaccine shot emoji. You need to. And you have to juxtapose that. You have to compare that to everything we talked about on the beginning of this episode.

All of the stuff that Democrats are doing, fighting for veterans, not just fighting with words, fighting with conduct, fighting with bills, fighting with legislation, all the things Democrats are doing to protect your rights, to protect the rights of you and your family so the government doesn't get involved and declare you a second class citizen or come after you. Democrats are passing legislation to protect that. And this big inflation reduction act to reduce inflation, to reduce the deficit. That's what I should mention, Brett, too, that this bill would reduce the deficit by 300 billion dollars. Biden has already reduced the deficit by hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars, where Trump increased the deficit

as well by four trillion. And the and the deficit, the the Infrastructure Reduction Act is going to get voted on next week. It'll go before the Senate. It could pass by a reconciliation. There is no filibuster when it comes to that bill because it is a budgetary act that is deficit neutral. In fact, it will reduce the deficit. And therefore, under the Senate's ridiculous set of rules that for based on the Senate rules qualifies as a non event that can be filibustered. Well, meanwhile, introducing a bill like protecting and codifying Roe v. Wade can be filibustered. That's a whole nother conversation for a whole nother podcast. Let's bring in our guest. Let's bring in Reggie Watts. Let's talk with Reggie about his involvement, if you want to call it involvement in politics. I mean, Reggie's just out there calling balls and strikes. Just call it. Well, he's like us. He was not a political guy. He's a comedian. He comedian he's a musician you know he's just a person who cares about people

and so i'm excited to see what he uh has to say and then after reggie stick around i want to get into some of the trump investigation stuff how about that we'll be right back with reggie wait have you seen this photo of trump oh my god put God. Put it up. Okay. Audio listeners, I am sorry, but go to the Midas Touch Twitter account and you'll see the photo that we're talking about. Or subscribe to YouTube. But before we go to Reggie, just put this photo of Trump. All right. I'm sorry. Now that you have thrown up your lunch, let's go and check in.

Just for the listeners, he does not look good. I don't even, I can't, I don't even know how to describe him. He looks like a, like a cadaver or something. I don't even know. Anyway, our interview now with Reggie Watts. Discover the magic of Bad MGM Casino, where the excitement is always on deck. Pull up a seat and check out a wide variety of table games with a live dealer. From roulette to blackjack, watch as a dealer hosts your table game

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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast. We are joined by Reggie Watts, comedian, actor, musician, multi-hyphenate, who leads, of course, the house band for the Late Late Show with James Corden, Reggie Watts, welcome to the pod. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. So Reggie, those who have been following your social media accounts later would say is Reggie has been stepping into the arena of politics. But the things that you've been saying, though, really, when you break them down, I mean, to me, aren't so much political as kind of common sense, like insurrections, bad fascism, bad. Can you speak to that?

Like the as a comedian and where we are now, it's beyond parody if if these people weren't so dangerous? Yeah, well, I mean, I just get so frustrated constantly with, you know, I'm terrible. I shouldn't read comments or, you know, to videos. I should never do that. But I do, and I engage in these, you know, these discussions with people that are just kind of, just saying these things that are obviously, they're just parroting stuff that they hear and and it's just such an unconscious time so it's a lot of

you know from montana so i definitely see some great bumper stickers when i'm back home and all of it is just so frustrating to me because it's all just a bunch of bs um and and uh and and people are just falling for language you know like they're falling for tactics that other people are setting up in order to kind of so without being conspiratorial it's just kind of just a human thing but like it's just people sowing division uh you know using particular forms of language those people i'm sure who are doing that don't really care about being a Democrat or Republican, a conservative or a liberal or far right or any of that stuff. They're just using whatever tool necessary to divide people. And to me, it's very obvious

what's going on. But it sucks when I see people really ideologically glued and sucked in there. And it's it just sucks. I'm like, God damn it, man. That sucks. You talk about growing up in Montana, you know, one of the senators from Montana, John Tester, he's a Democrat, or he gave us the other day, the Republicans voted against a bill that would protect veterans who come home or enable additional healthcare access to our veterans who come home overseas, who were exposed to who were exposed to these toxic pits while they were these burn pits while they were abroad. Republicans voted against that. John Tester from Montana gave the most fiery speech that there was to people in Montana, like realize one that John Tester's a Democrat and two, that all of the Republicans have voted against like veterans, like getting health care who were exposed to cancerous toxic pits.

If you can't convince people on that issue, how you convince them on anything? I know. I know. I don't even know what the hell. I just have no idea what they're doing. I don't know what the strategy is. Like, I really don't even know what the hell. I just have no idea what they're doing. I don't know what the strategy is. Like, I really don't. It just seems like they were given a memo that just says anything that seems to help people that seems pretty pragmatic to help people, like, definitely don't vote for that. Like, that's what we don't vote for. I don't get it.

Tester has been, I mean, he's been in politics in Montana for a long time. I think Montana technically is, it's supposed to become more of a purple state anyways, but it's become more conservative, I guess, over the last decade or so. But yeah, they love Tester. I mean, people really love Tester because he hopefully speaks to this kind of rationalism, which is, you know, we need to help people, you know,

because that's what government is supposed to do. It's supposed to be like, yeah, we need to help people. And then more specifically, if you're from an area, like, you know, you understand that area and you're supposed to help those people, as many people as possible to have a better situation. And, and I think that he's such an honest, you know, entrenched guy. It's really hard to like paint him as, you know, a terrible person by the opposition. And, and he's, you know, a farmer, you know, he's lost fingers from farming

accidents. So it's like, you know, he's, he's pretty, I think he's pretty well respected there. So he's an outlier, I guess, in this day and age. And you come from a military family, right? Your father was in the Air Force. He lived around a lot as a kid, lived in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, then ultimately Montana. No, Republicans like to drape themselves in the flag. They like to use the word patriotism, but really do everything against it. Like coming from your background, living in a military family, you know, I'm sure the flag had great meaning and import and, you know, to almost see it hijacked, you know, do you feel that way that it's been, you know, kind of hijacked?

I mean, it's been completely hijacked. I mean, the term freedom sucks now. I'm trying to like figure out, I mean, the term freedom sucks now, like I'm trying to like figure out ways to bring back the word freedom. It's like freedom sounds gross now when you, when you hear it, because yeah, these terms it's, it's, again, it's just me being incredibly disappointed with humanity. It's like, you know, like the idea of freedom, the idea of, of of patriotism what the flag means what a country is what the united states is historically and i know it's complicated it's complex and uh guns

and all of that stuff it's like it's kind of like really entrenched in our in our culture but i think that there is a fairness that that the u.s was really engaged in at one point, you know, at least on a more obvious level when it felt a little bit more like that. And I was in, you know, I grew up in the 80s in Montana, so the economy is doing really well. So I had like a sample of what it could have been like, you know, what the United States could be like because the school systems are funded very well.

You know, we had so many resources at our fingertips as kids growing up it was like like a i don't know utopia in a way and uh and then it just got you know it just got worse with the 90s and the darkness of the 90s and the bushes and the wars and you know all of these things and even the clinton era was kind of a little dark and you know there's there's a darkness that just started happening encroaching and yeah and it sucks i get really i really get bummed out about a party just going full bore into propaganda to such a level at which it actually starts working you know and you have people then they start playing people's frustrations and

accessing that through whatever means necessary. So if they're like freedom, you know, this is freedom, you know, or this is like, you know, we're patriots, blah, blah, blah, but we're not going to help veterans. We're patriots, but we don't want to make lives of all Americans better. We believe in freedom, but we're going to reduce your ability to choose certain things. It just sucks, man. It's like I really don't get it. I keep trying to run it in my head. And that's not the way that if you want to be evil, you know, like, and I don't like using the evil word very much, but it is.

I'm just going to generalize. Let's just say evil, right? Let's say hyper inefficiency or Let's say hyper-inefficiency, or let's say hyper-selfishness. I would say the problem with it is that they're not doing it right. You know what I mean? If you really want to be a selfish, kind of a greedy person, you would actually make the lives of your community around you better, because then you would have the efficiency of people's will with you, because then you would have the efficiency of people's will with you, as opposed to like people being kind of coerced through emotional rage, which is a terrible way to get people on your side. It's not very effective. And it's also

not a long game strategy. It's a short term strategy. So I don't really get why. I guess it's just people are addicted to power and they just can't stop. I don't really, I don't really get why. I guess it's just people are addicted to power and they just can't stop. I don't really, I don't understand it. You know, you hear about the authoritarians, you know, of the past who would placate their base by giving them, you know, food or handing out money on the street. And you're right. When you think about it, it's like the new authoritarian goes, no, no, no, no, no. We don't even need to give them shit. Let's just give them COVID. Let's kill them.

Let's take away their health care. They'll actually love us more if we're bigger assholes to them to the point where we kill them. Once we actually start killing them, then they'll really love us. And the base responds like that. And I sit there and I go, what? That's such a good point it's so true it's they're not even they're not even handing out the money to their people it's the opposite that's like what it's like it's like yes and we're gonna do this and do that and these guys suck and like yeah yeah yeah and and we're gonna we're gonna take away your rights yeah that

sounds cool yeah and then we're gonna um and then we're gonna like do things are definitely gonna make your life harder okay i'm down for that as long as we get freedom at the end then we're going to do things that are definitely going to make your life harder. Okay, I'm down for that as long as we get freedom at the end. Yeah, we're going to give you freedom at the end. But first, like a lot of you are going to die. People in your family, yeah, yeah. I think, yes. Let's go to a rally.

Let's wear T-shirts with your face on it. One more before I turn it over to Brett. As a comedian, though, you're in front of audiences, you get to actually interact with people fairly frequently. And in those interactions with people, do you see, and granted, at the Corden show, you probably have a, it's probably a group that probably feels a certain way about issues and are fairly, you know, fairly consistent on their views. But as you travel the country, generally, are people saying something consistently to you? Do you see something different in the interactions with people now than you did, say, a decade ago or longer ago, where people, there's an angst or there's an optimism or there's a

what is there any trend that you see you know my experience most of the interactions i have with people because of this whatever it is that i do people are usually very positive and they're usually very thankful um about me you know i guess giving them a little bit of levity and things like that because my my stand my stand-up my comedy isn't really particularly political um it's i guess it's political i think of it more as human behavioral like uh analysis like that that's kind of what it is for me and then hacking people and in in the moment to a benevolent hack social hack to kind of alleviate pressure from being inundated and feeling like there's nothing you can do and you're trapped inside this like

oncoming doom you know of society or whatever so i always try to use absurdity as a tool to kind of deconstruct that to remind people that there are millions of other options that there are ways around these problems and ways to solve things and i mean not directly but it's just that's what i'm thinking when i'm doing what i do because i think absurdity loosens up and comedy in general when you're laughing obviously your your guards are a little bit down um you're more synchronized with a hopeful feeling that kind of that kind of thing but on top of that i try to just send out a message of common sense and not like hey man everybody's gotta love everybody i just try to find a zone where it's like hey you know don't everybody it's like the beastie boy said you know it's like gotta fight for your right to party and that's totally true i say that

a lot but it's totally true you gotta fight for your right to party. So for me, I'm just reminding people that the most important thing about being a human being is being creative, being interested, collaborative, and wanting to help solve problems. And so I think people get that to an extent. And that's usually the. At first, I just want to say everybody who's watching this, who somehow doesn't know Reggie, I don't know how that's even possible at this point. But I really you got to go. You just got to get that get lost in that YouTube rabbit hole. If you're going to get lost in any YouTube rabbit hole, make it a Reggie Watts rabbit hole of just the incredible content he does, the music he does. He's really like the most talented person on the planet. And I'm really not exaggerating once you watch this. I want to get into this idea of the human hacking that you were just talking about, because I think it's an interesting thing. And I think, first off, I think it's funny that you've been calling yourself a, and correct me if I'm wrong, a disinformationist for a while in your way to disorient the audience on stage and get reactions out of them. And now we obviously see these politicians and pundits and talking heads using disinformation in a really horrific, negative way. And when you see these like Trump rallies of all just all the chaos, all the craziness on stage, it's like he

is doing a human hack on people. But instead of doing it for levity and for good, he's doing it to corrupt the minds of the public. So you watch these things and be like, hey, he's using these hack strategies, but he's being really fucked up about it. He's like using them for evil. Well, yeah, I mean, he's he well, yeah, I mean, with the way that he speaks in the I mean, everything about him, his body language, the vocal tonality that he uses, the fluctuations, the cadence that he uses his appearance all of that stuff it's all a giant like kind of you know what movie was that jungle book

where the in the 80s i'm talking about the original jungle book not that bullshit not the yeah um but like the snake or whatever with like the mesmerizing it's like that's exactly what trump's doing it's uh when you're in the zone when you're in the beam people are like yeah yeah i'm being fed what i need i'm being fed what i need but if as soon as you get a crack there's like a crack in that that acceptance or like you're just a complete outsider going like what the fuck is going on it's so plain to see what he's doing he's a it's full-on snake oil salesman like uh and he's really good at it but i don't think it's he's good at it because he's smart i don't think he's a very

smart person i think he's a very instinctual person he's like he's got a high instinctual iq it's like very like very like primal in a way right yeah prime exactly primal and very and it's all about self-preservation. So it's like whatever it takes to make sure that he survives and at the cost of anything. So he'll invent this whole, you know, he's hidden behind the business world all of his life with a false assumption that he's a powerful, very clever man. But he's not. He's just been privileged and he has a sociopathy that allows him to just be ruthless

and pretend like he's some kind of a mobster or whatever it is, but he has a charm because he's like, I'm just going to do what I want to do. People are like, yeah, man, you get to do what you want to do. I wish I could do that. He's just like me. It's like, what are you talking about? This guy's just like you. How is he just he's just like me it's like what are you talking about this guy's just like you how is he just like you tell me uh you know so to me it's very logical but i see him and

i see the way he talks and i'm like he's just an entertainer and uh unfortunately he doesn't draw the line he doesn't let people in on the fact that he's an entertainer um at all and uh and especially since he got into politics and so i don know, there was kind of like a little bit of levity to him, kind of, before he got into politics. Like, he wasn't fully aware that he, people were making fun of him, you know, like that he was a buffoon, essentially. And, but he kind of thought he knew and because he just doesn't understand irony. And that's like most conservative, when talking about conservatives, i by the way i don't think that conservatives are conservatives i don't know what they are i guess this is like our number one point we make on the show all the time so i'm so glad you're saying yeah what the fuck are they it's like i guess they're

i guess they're neo-fascists or like or some kind of there needs to be some kind of a new term i don't know what it is but uh whatever it is the the point is like it's it's not that but they're using the moniker uh to i guess say like this is conservatism it's like i'm conservative i'm conservative but every time i look at what they're doing it's like that's not conservatism at all anyways i i just think like you know that whole thing that's happening it's really just about accessing people's emotion and that's it it's the same like you know there's that preacher that's talking about witches in his congregation or whatever you know that that dude uh recently

i've been seeing video of it and uh he's just saying that i've got the names of first and last names of six witches in our congregation and then you know and people are getting all riled up and he's like you gotta we gotta get rid of these witches he's satan loving then he switches to like democrats or satans or satanists and uh baby killers and blah blah and like if you vote democrat you're voting for satan i'm like this is obviously a political shill like like obviously he's not even political i don't know know. I don't know what it is. It's not political to me. I don't know. It's power, I guess it's, it's power. It's, it's control. It's, it's, it's really hard to figure it out, but that's why, you know, that's why I like speaking with you because we have so many political guests on the show, obviously that it's nice to have somebody who really just doesn't have an agenda. Doesn't have a plug. You didn't even consider

yourself a member of a political party. If I'm, if I'm not mistaken, you're just like, I'm a regular guy. I look for, I saw you tweet this. I'm a compassionate. I look for compassionate people who want to help out. And it just seems like we're lacking a fundamental lack of, we have a fundamental lack of human decency in the country right now where nobody wants to care about each other. It's all me, me, me, me, me, me, me. Yes.

Do you think that that lack of decency is kind of the through line between a lot of these issues that we're seeing right now in the country? I 100 percent and also role models that are speaking in a cogent, practical way. I am very I'm very impressed with Pete Buttigieg because his ability to walk right into the lion's den and just be cool, calm, collective or collected and, and just speak pragmatism and logic. It's like, there is no defense against those types of things. And I think that those kinds of role models, more of those people are needed or what's his name? Rin um that guy's amazing or the uh or uh who's the woman that always like katie porter porter yeah breaks out the whiteboard and you know it's game over once that whiteboard comes out you can't you can't win against that because

because everything that that you know this whole phenomenon that's causing people to just kind of be like you're a fucking asshole you're a blow up my i my trainer will hate me saying this but it's but it's true but my trainer is like a little bit like he'll be like what's wrong with desantis you know he'll say stuff like that and like he's entitled to his own opinion of course but i can tell that he's just been he's been algorithmized you know like he's he's not speaking from a place because when i talk to him i don't go directly against him but i'll offer three other versions of what he thinks that is yeah you know you know what i mean because i'm like i'm not going to be like yeah that's not true just answer is a fucking piece of shit i kind of say that i

kind of say that but uh but but for me it's it's it's more than name calling i think people are just into this otherism now and this this game even my liberal like hardcore liberal friends you know i would say like i'm socially liberal i guess and and kind of i guess politically conservative in the traditional sense in that i want conservation you know like i want things to be tight and efficient you know on a governmental level but i want things to be socially i want people to be like more libertarian without all the the gross stuff about libertarianism but like just like like you do what you do i do what i do um and i love that we can be in a society like that like that's kind of that's the overall feeling and that i'm that that i think it would be fun to live in a place like uh like that so it's like yeah i don't have to like this whole thing about like i don't know

gay marriage or like uh disenfranchised uh minorities and things like that getting rights and like people being pissed off about it and you're like you realize you're bitching about a population that's less than one percent of our population like what is oh you're just you're angry that people are given are being recognized that kind of stuff to me is i don't know i i just i see it as like all of our problems socially and politically are very easy to solve they're they're very easy to solve like uh homelessness poverty all these things we have the tools to solve them but there's such discohesion there's just an incoherence in our society for whatever reason um that doesn't allow us to see that and also doesn't allow us to see that we are people living together

and that at the end of the day if the person that you hate it's like i hate a transgender blah blah but then if someone was like this transgender person or like here have this piece of pie man this pie is delicious i gotta get the like this transgender person or like, here, have this piece of pie. Man, this pie is delicious. I got to get the recipe. Yeah. Transgender person made it. But fuck this pie. Well, isn't that funny, though, because it's it's almost to me how so many people get sucked

into these right wing movements. And I'm completely stereotyping your trainer right now. But I feel like a lot of people get sucked into the Trump, the DeSantis, the, you know, whoever off of this, quote, unquote, woke kind of conversation where they pick apart. Like like I think the most recent example would be this Kamala Harris blue suit clip from yesterday. I don't know if you saw this. She was speaking to a group of disability activists and and visually impaired people and blind people. And she described her appearance. She said, I'm Kamala Harris. I'm a woman sitting here, you know, at the end of the table. I'm wearing a blue suit. My pronouns are she and her. And that they what the right wing does is they clip that segment off.

They start posting. Oh, look how woke she is using her pronouns and saying she's a woman and saying she's wearing a blue suit. This is beyond parody. And then they get that kind of going around as this viral, oh, look how woke, da, da, da, da. And then it becomes this weird balance, right? Of like, oh yeah, sure. Like this one party did do an insurrection against the United States of America, but Kamala Harris was talking about her blue suit and her pronouns. So who am I i gonna go with here yeah i know yes i know and yes i've had that phenomenon i mean my my trainer just uh uh yesterday um i'm not gonna say well no actually i'll also rephrase it just so it doesn't localize because i've had a few trainers i wanted to be a guest after this interview your former trainer i'm just yes yeah my former trainer i know i know

no he's he's an amazing trainer that's that otherwise i wouldn't be great and and again everybody's entitled to their own opinion but but analyzing you know the the things that he said like there's that what about ism or whatever so it's like you know i'll talk about you know he'll talk about the insurrection be like you know they're so pissed off about people that, you know, were angry and stormed the Capitol. And yet, you know, you have all of these like these violent protests, you know, that are happening in Democratic cities, you know, and like, well, what about them? And I'm just like, I'm like that. There's no there's no that's not an equivalent like at all. And not only that, but like just talk about the issue at hand. Don't steer to this other like bullshit stuff and that's what's interesting about like the kamala the phenomenon like so you know

it's like picking these you're just i guess it's just like it's so dumb it's like a little baby or something you're like here's the thing that they really or they want a certain thing and then you're like yeah really this thing i'm sure one of the things that you guys have had to figure out over at the late late show is how to kind of deal with politics and and comedy in this era it's i mean it can't be easy a lot of shows have really leaned into it like colbert and and seth meyers i feel like you guys have taken a different approach at Corden. How do you guys kind of handle just like the political, you know, that's the politics of it all when it comes to these late night shows? Is there like an edict at the show about what to talk about?

Or are you just at the end of the day, what's funny is funny. We're just going to leave that. Well, I mean, you know, I'm just kind of observing it. But like the stuff that generally or how they handle things. I mean, I think in general, pretty much all talk show hosts are, at least on the networks, are relatively liberal. I would, I guess, you know, just because they talk disfavorably about things that should be talked disfavorably. So I guess that's, I guess that's liberal. But our show specifically, like it's just, it's just jabs,

a lot of jabs and jibes and yeah. And it's generally handled pretty lightheartedly. And there are definitely people on the couch at times that will mention things, but I think they generally try to keep it light unless there's a tragedy, obviously then tragedy is a tragedy, but in general, it sounds it's pretty light,

but you kind of know that James Gordon does not like whatever the Republican neocon Marjorie Taylor green, whatever those things are. And they're almost not people, but likeie Taylor green, whatever those things are. And they're almost not people, but like, you know, whatever those things are. So he'll,

he'll definitely make winks and nods and nudges to those kinds of things, but it's not never, never heavy handed. And now the late, late show is coming to an end, huh? In 2023.

That's a, that's pretty sad news. How, how are you kind of viewing the experience looking back on these past, what is it, eight years, nine years, something like that? But how do you reflect on your experience at the Late Late Show? And what are you going to do next once the show ends? Good question. I mean, I don't know.

I think I want to have my own show. So I have a couple of shows that I'm pitching. Yeah, I'd really like to have my own show. And also get more involved in things like this, you know, like being able to have discussions about politics and current, like, state of society and things like that, and just kind of working to keep encouraging people to, you know, to think critically and to kind of disengage from the, just from just how crazy we are towards each other and then reducing the language that we use. That is really pretty useless. And so I'm really passionate about that.

So I'd like to definitely become more involved and go on as many shows and talk about that kind of stuff, just to hopefully remind people that, like, you know, you have a choice as to how you want to view life. And you don't have to be a prisoner to the fantastical, hyper-entertainment language that's being used by most media outlets. Well, we mind-meld there, Reggie. You know, that's why we really started this platform, because we were not political people in a traditional sense. You know, that's why we really started this platform, because we were not political people in a traditional sense.

You know, all our backgrounds. Brett was an editor. I was, you know, a lawyer doing my thing. I got to tell Reggie, actually, because Reggie and I have actually crossed paths like multiple times. I bet Reggie remembers zero of them, but they were moments for me. So I actually worked for one of Reggie's companies back in the day. First off, one of my first jobs was for a company called Jash, which was a comedy collective that Reggie was a part of.

I never once saw Reggie working there, but I actually saw you shooting things. But I was not nearly high enough up the food chain to say hi to you at that point. I also I used to work at the Ellen DeGeneres show for over five years in their digital department. And Corden actually took a lot of our employees at a certain point when Corden started. So we actually have some mutuals there. And I also saw you at one of my favorite sushi spots in Los Angeles, Hama Sushi once, which I just, which is such a great spot in downtown LA. And so maybe we'll have to, after this interview one day, grab some sushi together. That'd be great.

Thanks. We kind of mind-melded there. And again, we're not... The fact that, hey, let's be healthy. Let's not do insurrections. Let's not take away rights

from people. The fact that that's viewed as, oh, man, that's a political show y'all have over there. It's like that's that's political that we just reinforce like basic things. But that's that's where we're at. That's the platform that we build. But Reggie, the good thing is, is that, you know, what what we've built is resonating. We're so happy to have you on. We hope that you come on more. And, you know, after the show, I'll talk to you briefly about what we've built on our, you know, on our YouTube channel, because, you know, we're doing about a million views a day on YouTube. And the message is really, I think, cutting through the noise because people are tired of media that both

sides that people are tired of media that speaks like robots and doesn't really say what's at stake. And, you know, when you call it like it is, a comment said, who would have known calling out traders has a market, you know, and we found that market. That's awesome. We appreciate you, Reggie, and hope you come back. Man, anytime. I love what you guys are doing. Thanks. We'll be right back after these messages. There are very few things that you can be certain of in life.

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Handcrafted cold foam topped with toasted cookie crumble. It's a sweet summer twist on iced coffee. Your cold brew is ready at Starbucks. Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast. Great having Reggie Watts on. Reggie. Yes, great to have Reggie. Brennan, all those connections that you have with Reggie, pretty amazing. You were mocking me for him, but it's funny. You kind of can't miss Reggie when he's, you know, out in LA. I wasn't mocking you. A little bit. You thought that was a mock? A light mock, you know, not, not, not, not a total mock, but a little bit of light mock. But it's funny that I did actually work for Reggie at one of his companies, like back in the day,

one of my first jobs in LA, which is, which is pretty funny. Never crossed paths paths with him but but this it's a small town it's a small town very cool to have him here on the show another small town washington dc and there is a lot a lot going on in washington dc let's talk about it so earlier in the week we got news um multiple sources, multiple papers have reported that Donald Trump is directly under investigation by Merrick Garland and the DOJ. I think that had to be said directly like that. I mean, we've known that. I mean, we've been saying that on the podcast because we know that a grand jury has been impaneled in Washington, D.C. We know subpoenas have been flying from that grand jury. We know that state legislatures have been receiving these subpoenas based on their conduct and submitting fake electors like in Arizona and in Michigan and elsewhere. We've literally seen the video of John Eastman being served with a

warrant. We've seen Jeff Clark in his underwear leaving his house being. If you're in the Trump orbit, just sleep with your clothes on. All right. Just sleep. Wear some sweatpants. At least you got to know something that can come at any time. So that's my that's my free advice right now as the host of the Midas such podcast to you. Wear some pants. So we know that the DOJ is directly investigating Donald Trump. Merrick Garland has said it when he's been asked the question. I mean, Merrick Garland's been very careful in his approach. And one of the reasons he's been very careful in his approach is he's been involved in the most high profile investigations and he's led them before becoming a D.C. Circuit judge,

before becoming a district judge, D.C. Circuit judge, and then becoming the attorney general. Remember, he led the prosecution of Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing. Remember, he led the team that oversaw the prosecution of the Unabomber. Really some of the most high profile investigations that were handled with a great deal of success. And already it's something like 830 plus cases have been brought against insurrectionists to date at all levels from charges that include obstruction to seditious conspiracy. So there's been about, you know, over 150 or close to 150 cases. There's already been sentencing about 200 plus additional cases. The defendants will be sentenced soon. So we're talking about close to half. So of 800 criminal case, 800 criminal cases

brought close to half. There's guilty, there's convictions, and people are being sentenced to significant jail time at all levels, sometimes less, sometimes more. But think about that record already that exists. And now they've climbed to the top and everyone's like, well, I want him to go quicker. I want him to go faster. I always say I want him to go quicker and faster, too. But what I want, what I want is Trump to be convicted in a process that will be free from any of the gamesmanship that Merrick Garland's nose is going to be played if he's political Fawnie Willis, for example, which is she was in her office, was disqualified with respect to subpoenaing for it before the grand jury for lieutenant governor, his opponent in the race in Georgia. And the judge in that case found there to be an actual conflict of interest. And granted, Fannie Willis was only disqualified from that one case, not the other electors who she's investigating for their criminal involvement in January 6th and the

fake elector scheme. But that's not a great look. That's very probably that could be very problematic to an investigation. And Merrick Garland wants to avoid things like that just based on the experience that he's had. Yeah, I think honestly, I think Garland actually deserves our respect. I think he deserves our trust. I think we need to, you know, hold him accountable and make sure that he's going to do the right thing. But let's face it, he's not listening to your bread. Like, I don't know if they're happening right now. So I'm focusing on the screen. But some of the comments that we get are he looks weak. I wasn't even mean he looks weak. And I think it's just some reflex of, you know, just worrying. Is he going to come through? for the job. And I'm happy that none of these Twitter pundits are behind this investigation because it would flop and they would never get a conviction and it would all go away.

But it's very clear what Garland is doing here. It's very clear that he is targeting Trump. We know this now and we know that Trump world is afraid. And how do we know that? Well, let's look at Fox News. Fox News has been freaking out over the news and now they're trying to position Garland as some sort of Soviet style prosecutor, Vladimir Putin as prosecutor. And Garland cannot be more of opposite of that description. And so I'm happy we have somebody who really is an apolitical figure who is looking at the facts, who is doing this diligently, methodically. And I think we need to push back on these sort of Twitter pundits who are going after Garland and are trying to, I mean, what do

you think happens if you get Garland off this investigation? Just map it out for a second. For all the people saying fire Merrick Garland, you're going to throw away all the case that he's built over the past, what is it, 12, 14 months or so? Because he actually got in last March. He didn't get in in January. So it's been just a little over a year. You're going to have to then put a new age through a vote and the Republicans are never going to vote for another age. And then you're just going to have no age or an acting age. a history of like 100% success in prosecuting the most high profile domestic terrorist cases in our country. Somebody who president Obama trusted enough to put on the Supreme court, somebody who Mitch McConnell was too afraid to have on the Supreme court and somebody who then president Biden nominated as a G. Are you going to trust those people? Are you going to trust Obama here? Are you going to trust Biden? Are you going to trust you? What you've seen that

this guy's done in the past, Or are you going to play into the angry mob against Garland and try to push a guy out who's trying to do a lot of good for our country? And then he has to move quicker. He's already secured about 400 convictions, like guilty convictions. Oh, my God. I could see the negative comments already on all this entire conversation. But we got to deliver the facts. I got to deliver the facts. But I definitely understand the frustration because it seems, and it is so obvious to all of us, Trump did it. We know he did it. We heard him. We saw him with our own eyes do it. So if it's as simple as, hey, just prosecute him. We saw it on a video. Like, why? What is the complexity here that we have to deal with? And then I say, you have to unpack the layers of what that complexity is.

And the complexity is it would be the first time in American history that a former president, and it pains me to even use that word to refer to Trump, would be prosecuted, number one. And then it has all of these issues of First Amendment. Then it has all of these issues of executive privilege as the executive. What can the executive and the president do and say and what you know and what are the implications of that? And then there is the aspect of what what when do we, you know, try this case? You know what? What's the timing of it? And if you were to rush to prosecute, you want to make sure you have all of your witnesses lined up and ready to go.

So let's say you try to prosecute nine months ago, right? Would Cassidy Hutchinson be a witness? Exactly. Would Mulvaney be a witness? Would Mark Short, Trump's when you bring that case, it is absolutely our type. I'll give you what I think Trump's what I think the strategy is going to be around prosecuting Trump. So I think they're going to go really, really, really hard. And they already are at John Eastman and Giuliani and Jeff Clark. And they're going to try these people, I think, for some of the maximum crimes imaginable. And really, you know, because that's part of what you would do in a mafia prosecution, go after the lieutenants like that. And one of the things they're going to try to do is is get one of those individuals to flip and going to have the maximum

amount of jail time, you know, against them to see if they'll flip eventually against against Trump before deciding whether or not they're going to actually make that final, you know, prosecutorial decision to prosecute Trump, which I think they're going to do. We know they're looking at John Eastman's phone. We know that the search warrant, the second search warrant was issued, approved by a magistrate judge. There's a filter team in place because Eastman was an attorney as well. They need to filter out what is allowed, what's not allowed for them to look at. And I want to be clear also about like how

you get these warrants. And Ben, you're the lawyer. You could correct me if I'm wrong here. But in order to get these warrants in the first place, the Department of Justice needs to specify that it is good cause that the contents of Eastman's phone show evidence of his crimes. So they are definitely going for it. They also have Mark Meadows's messages. I think the Mark Meadows thing, I think as we find out more about what's really going on with the Mark Meadows situation, I'm very curious to see what's actually taking place there. I don't know if Meadows is cooperating or if he is a high level target. I don't know what is happening there. I don't know what any but something's going on with with Mark Meadows. And we know that they are laser focused on Meadows. And we also know that they did not prosecute Meadows for contempt of Congress, which I also think was part of a negotiated thing with Meadows' lawyers as kind of a carrot and a stick. And the carrot saying, we could prosecute you and we could send you to jail right now,

but you need to cooperate with us because ultimately the contempt of Congress charges a misdemeanor and it's one year per count. And so it would be up to two years maximum anyway, when they're holding a far greater amount of leverage over Meadows than just those those two years in prison. So I also by the way, when we close, we should also mention, hey. He gets a lot of criticism by Democrats, but Joe Manchin, I mean, Joe Manchin and this compromise and the way Joe Manchin did it and really gave an FU to Mitch McConnell and how he did it was big. And that should be reflected as well.

You can't just always criticize someone like a Manchin and then not when they do something positive and good be like that was a really important step. We'll see what happens with this bill. By all expectations, it should pass next week. Manchin's the one spearheading it. Manchin says, what happens with this bill. By all expectations, it should pass next week. Manchin's the one spearheading it. Manchin says, I'm supporting this bill. And it has major things in there that you would not expect that Manchin would support. But this is playing the long game with Schumer and Manchin. I thought it was great. Yeah. I'm going to play the role of Jordy here and just say Manchin's given me zero reason to trust them overall and zero reason zero reason to trust them overall

and zero reason for us to trust them. So let's see what happens. Let's see if we get this across the finish line. But I think it's very promising. And I think it's promising that Manchin himself was the person who came out and announced this deal.

And I think it will do a lot of good for the American people. And that's really, you know, if there's anything about this episode that we've hit on time and time again, it's that like, hey, when we started Midas Touch, we weren't political people. I still don't really consider myself a political person even working in this. And someone like Reggie Watts, never a political person, but there is compassion and there's decency. There's doing the right thing. There's helping our veterans. There's allowing people to live the way that they want to live. And then there is just the mean spiritedness and the fascism and the control and the power of freedom. Democrats are the party of patriotism.

And I think we don't want those to be dirty words. We want them to mean what they should actually mean. That's true patriotism. That's true freedom. I want to also, before we head out of here, there are ways to get involved with Midas Touch out in the field and digitally. I want you to go to fieldteam6.

That's the number six, fieldteam6.org slash volunteer dash ops OPS. You go to that website. We have all these Midas Touch picks where you could actually get involved right now. I'll tell you one thing this weekend. If you're in Georgia, you could be registering Democrats on the ground in Marietta, Georgia this Saturday with us. This kind of stuff is so important and we need to get started now. And you could really be a part of these efforts, but it's not just on the ground efforts. We have texting efforts, phone banking efforts.

So go to fieldteam6.org. Remember to hit that volunteer button, see all the actions that you could take. Got to register Democrats and let's together save the world. Love it. Thank you everybody for watching this episode of the Midas Touch Podcast, Ben and Brett. We we'll find Jordy soon see what Jordy's doing maybe Jordy's

just okay I hope he's okay I'm sure I'm sure Jordy is we'll see you next time on the Midas Touch podcast shout out to the Midas Mighty