The MeidasTouch Podcast - Trump VERY BAD DAY at Trial as WITNESS CALLED + Jordy Interviews President Biden
Episode Date: April 23, 2024On this episode of the MeidasTouch Podcast: The Trump trial is underway with opening statements from the prosecution and the defense – and the first witness takes the stand; Jordy interviews Preside...nt Biden; The NY AG got the court to fix glaring issues with Trump’s bond; Trump violates his gag order again; President Biden touts his environmental achievements on Earth Day; Ukraine aid passes in the House as MAGA is defeated; and more! Ben, Brett and Jordy break it down. Thanks to our sponsors: 3 Day Blinds: For their buy 1 get 1 50% off deal, head to https://3DayBlinds.com/MEIDAS. HumanN: Get a free thirty-day supply of SuperBeets Heart Chews and free full-sized bag of turmeric chews valued at $25 by going to http://getsuperbeets.com/ LifeLock: Save up to twenty-five percent your first year at https://LifeLock.com/MEIDAS Fum: Head to https://TryFum.com/MEIDAS and get 10% OFF the JOURNEY PACK today when you use 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 Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/coalition-of-the-sane/id1741663279 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Day five, week two of the Donald Trump criminal trial. Opening statements concluded the first
witness took the stand. The jury was fully sworn in. One reporter described Donald Trump today as
struggling to stay awake. His eyes were closed for a short period. He was jolted awake when his
lawyer nudged him while sliding a note in front of him.
Another reporter, Olivia Newsy, stated Trump is tilting his head dramatically and making
trout-like movements with his mouth as he listens to Justice Marchand. I think we've got some photos
of what that trout-like movement could look like.
Let's break down everything that happened on day five, week two, and what we expect is going to happen this week as David Pecker takes the witness stand. Also, there was another hearing in connection with the bond that Donald Trump's surety posted in the New York Attorney General's civil fraud case.
A deal was reached for Donald Trump to not simply post cash equivalents, but to actually post hard
cash and to have the surety take full control over a Schwab account in Donald Trump's name.
We'll break that down for you and what that means. Following
today's trial, Donald Trump seemed to have committed more gag order violations. And also,
he further incriminated himself, talking about how he didn't deduct the hush money payments that he
claims to be legal expenses. And then he attacked Michael Cohen, a witness in the case. Meanwhile, President Biden
was in Virginia with Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman AOC. We'll talk about everything
that went down there. And over the weekend, MAGA Mike Johnson, maybe he's not so MAGA anymore,
a Ukraine aid bill that had aid as well for other things passed in the House of Representatives by
an overwhelming majority in the House. MAGA Mike was actually thanked by President Zelensky in
Ukraine and frankly, by most freedom loving people here in the United States of America.
Now MAGAs like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar and Tom Massey and others
want to oust MAGA Mike Johnson and they say they will be introducing or furthering the motion to
vacate that was filed by Marjorie Taylor Greene but not officially voiced and submitted. So we'll
talk about all of that and more here on the Midas Touch podcast.
A busy, busy day in court, a busy day throughout the country, and a lot to discuss.
Brothers, how are you doing? Doing great. You could say that again, Ben. And our coverage
has basically been like 24-7. We're doing the live breakdowns before the court days every day at 8.30 a.m. Eastern,
then immediately following the court proceedings, we're doing more live breakdowns with Karen
Friedman Agnifilo, who was the number two prosecutor at the Manhattan DA's office.
Really nobody who knows more about the inner workings of these kinds of cases than Karen.
And it's been so cool to be able
to be a part of those broadcasts, to be able to watch them. If you haven't seen them yet,
check them out every day on our YouTube channel. They're always on the Midas Touch YouTube channel.
Finally, it felt like some semblance of normalcy in Congress, and it's a weird and welcome feeling.
And I'm not going to give Mike Johnson, MAGA Mike, if you want to call him that.
He can't shed the MAGA label too soon, Ben. Be careful with that.
Yeah, yeah. He can't get rid of that label too soon. I'm not going to give him too much credit,
but I will say that I am happy that he came around to this. It's like what we always say,
if one of these Republicans wants to do the right thing, we're not going to reject it simply because
they have an R at the end of their name. I think that's the difference, a huge difference that we see between the parties.
You see currently a democratic pro-democracy party that is eager to work together to make
these bipartisan solutions for the American people, whether it's on the border, whether
it's on Ukraine.
And you have this obstructionist few, I'll give them a little on this, the obstructionist few in the Republican Party
who are mucking up the entire system. And thankfully, finally, I don't know what exactly
caused it, but Mike Johnson finally took the action that was needed, although far too late,
but better late than never, I guess, in a situation like this
when literal lives are on the line. And it was great to see this kind of MAG movement neutralized.
I love seeing them just incredibly angry and kind of flailing. And there was a moment,
maybe we'll play it on this episode, that I think was so indicative of this moment.
And in a way, it feels like kind of a defining moment right now
in the way Congress is working. It was when Representative Tom Swasey, who represents
the district that we grew up in, who took over from George Santos, went to the House floor.
What an upgrade.
You had all these kind of mager Congress people, particularly Chip Roy,
kind of barking like a maniac, like screaming on the House floor. And he goes, that's not working.
That's not working anymore. Okay? That's not working. And I like to see that nonsense
finally being shut down. You get a sense of kind of the adults coming in the room and it's
incredibly refreshing. Jordy. And that's all we want to see here, right? That's what we talk about
here on the show all the time. We just want adults in the room that people who are actually going to
lead, let them lead this Macca movement. Y', it's way, way weaker than you think it is.
It's way weak.
And so that's why when MAGA Mike Johnson could stand up to the Marjorie Taylor Greens of
the world, they don't have anything to do except scream, yell, and whine because that's
their playbook.
Like we always say, this MAGA fraction, they don't want to lead.
They don't want to get anything done.
They just want to complain and fundraise off of that. And Ben, speaking about adults in the room,
did you say Trump violated a gag order or a gas order? I think I missed a gag or gas,
did you say before? You're clearly trying to bait me, so I'll take your bait right now,
regardless. So we probably do, Brett, to your point, what, six to eight hours of coverage a day on the Trump trial. And we cover it from like every angle. I mean, you know, what other network do you have the former number two at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, who at many times served as number one. She served as the acting district attorney on numerous occasions,
actually provide you with the inside scoop of what is taking place. And then we have other
federal prosecutors like Harry Litman or former federal prosecutors like Harry Litman and Shan Wu. And then we have state prosecutors as well. And so we've got top
people giving insight. And I like to think that my coverage that I do is good as well. And of course,
Michael Popak has the most incredible coverage too, and our whole team here.
But there was one portion where I was talking about what I had
heard from credible sources in the courtroom itself. And what my credible sources were telling
me, and it was more than one, was that Donald Trump was farting in the courtroom and that he
stunk and it was a real issue in the courtroom. And so in an entire, I mean, again, you know, this is where, you know, like
when you're like a radio host and you go hours and hours and hours and like in-depth sophisticated
coverage, like that, that was the portion that went like mega viral. Like I'm talking like 10
million views, mega viral on just one post alone in the aggregate, it probably got somewhere between a hundred
million to a billion engagements, you know, and like, it's become one of the defining
moments.
And when I was giving that coverage, I wasn't intending it to be like a viral moment, nor
was I intending to actually like mock anybody.
And I tried to really do it in a fairly delicate way.
Super delicate.
I was being super delicate because I heard it was making his lawyers very uncomfortable
and that they really were struggling with the smell. And it was becoming a thing that was a
data point. So I was simply letting people know, here's what I hear is happening. And I said, look, this is what sources are telling me.
I said, take it for what it's worth.
I'm not in the courtroom.
I speak to very credible people who are there.
If you want to just look at the lineup of Midas Touch hosts and correspondents across
all of our programming, you know that what makes our network unique is it's not just
journalists,
which are an important profession, but we have people who are always like embedded and who know
what's up in all of these areas. So I was just reporting on what I had heard from sources that
went on background. And this thing took a life of its own. It's being talked about everywhere.
But one of the things that I really want to talk about more than just that, as I said, take it for what it's worth. I want to talk about what went down in court. And every day
we've been keeping a scorecard of what's happening. So we did one from day one, two, three, four,
and now day five. We're in week two of the Trump criminal trial in Manhattan. To remind you,
I know there are a lot of Trump cases. This is for the falsification of business records to interfere with the 2016 election. Some people call it the
hush money payment case. I don't like to call it that because that's not what the court is calling
it. The court calls it falsification of business records to interfere with the 2016 election.
At the end of last week, a jury was selected. The voir dire process
moved rather expeditiously, but Karen Friedman Agnifilo called exactly and precisely how long
it was going to take. And today- She won the lunch bet.
She won the lunch bet with Michael Popak. You can't bet against Karen Friedman Agnifilo on-
Pay up, Popak. Pay up, Popak.
Although Karen Friedman Agnifilo, she still believes Donald Trump's going to take the
stand.
And I bet against Karen on that, but we will all do it.
You just not learn the lesson that you said 30 seconds ago?
I can't bet against Karen.
Never bet against KFA.
Except I'm going to just this once.
Sounds like another lunch bet.
Are you throwing down a lunch bet gauntlet?
Oh, I threw down the lunch bet gauntlet. I will not take my own advice there. But on day five,
the jury showed up. The jury was finally sworn in. There was an initial juror who had a little
bit of an issue about all the publicity, but the juror's concerns were addressed. I think that was
juror number nine. Earlier in the day, the judge made what's
called Sandoval rulings, which if Donald Trump takes the stand, what evidence is permitted to
come in for Donald Trump to be cross-examined. So Donald Trump's conduct in the E. Jean Carroll
defamation trial, Donald Trump's conduct in the civil fraud case. Basically, things that go to Donald Trump's untrustworthiness as a witness,
he basically opens the door for when he takes the stand. So Justice Mershon is letting a lot in
about Donald Trump's behavior. And even in the opening statement, the parties can discuss what
was said on the Access Hollywood tape. You just can't play the actual tape itself.
So opening statements began. You had Mr. Colangelo for the prosecution's team.
Colangelo gave the opening statement. And then Todd Blanche gave the opening statement for Trump's
team. An opening statement's not an opening argument. It's a statement of what the evidence
is going to show. Colangelo for the
prosecution started right away saying, this is about a conspiracy and a cover-up where Trump
was engaged in catch-and-kill schemes with the National Enquirer's parent company, AMI, to catch,
to pay off, to buy off bad stories, and then to kill them, to pay them off, threatened to sue these stories
after agreements and deals were entered into. And after AMI realized that it was committing a crime
by giving Donald Trump all of these benefits for the 2016 election by killing these bad stories,
which Trump wasn't paying taxes for, Trump then utilized Michael Cohen to engage in a catch and kill scheme as related to Stormy
Daniels.
Donald Trump was cheating on Karen McDougal, a mistress who he was cheating on Melania
with while she was pregnant with Stormy Daniels at that time.
And then the Access Hollywood tape came out at that time.
Colangelo in the opening statement talked about specifically
what Trump said and why it was vital for them to have to catch and kill the Stormy Daniels story,
how they went about doing that, how the payments were made, that Donald Trump's name and signature
is on the checks, that Donald Trump was involved in these conversations. You'll hear audio recordings of Donald Trump as well. And then you had Todd Blanche, Donald Trump's lawyer,
in his opening statement said, I'm going to keep on referring to him as President Trump because I
want to give the distinction to the title and I want to pay respect to the office. I mean, it's
total BS. And then Todd Blanche went on to say, everything you heard from the prosecution is false.
Michael Cohen was just paid legal expenses.
It wasn't anything special.
And Stormy Daniels was basically trying to shake Donald Trump down.
That's basically what they're going with.
And then David Pecker, the head of AMI, took the stand. Today's court day ended early for Passover, ended early as well because one of the jurors
also had like a dentist appointment that they had to go to.
And so Pecker basically gave some introductory statements.
But Pecker is going to give, I think, very damaging testimony for Donald Trump,
talking about the types of stories they were trying to kill, what specifically they were
looking for. And again, I think it's going to be very damaging to hear from Pecker. But that's
basically a summary, a very short summary, but I think I hit all the details of what went down
today, Brett. I thought one of the details of what went down today, Brett.
I thought one of the interesting things that Trump's attorney, Todd Blanch, tried to do is
when he was speaking about that whole notion of, and yes, I'm going to call him Mr. President
throughout the trial. Yes, I'm going to honor his title. I'm going to honor the fact that he was,
I'm like, ugh. But he also tried to paint this kind of bizarre everyman picture of Donald Trump as star for sex that he had with a porn star
while he was married to a wife who was pregnant with their child,
trying to paint this image as a family man.
While he was having an affair at the same time with Karen McDougal as well.
Yes, thanks for the addition.
Just a regular family man. Just a regular the addition. Just your regular family man.
Just your regular family man.
Just a husband and father.
Yeah.
Having an affair with multiple adult film actresses.
Just the average Joe.
The average Joe, folks.
Unreal.
And have you guys seen this too?
That they continue to make the courtroom colder to keep people – again, I've read to your point from last week.
To keep people awake.
That's the trick that they're trying to do. And yet, snooze-a-palooza over here,
Donald Trump cannot stay awake during the trial. He keeps falling asleep. I mean,
at what point should we be seriously concerned about this?
I don't even know. Frankly, I don't even-
Brett, go ahead.
I was going to say, frankly, I don't even know if it's to keep him away because I do hear the courtroom is quite free.
Like all the reporters are saying that it's incredibly cold in the courtroom.
But cold also is like a way to neutralize odors.
I'm just going to throw that.
It is a means.
I'm going to – was it Snoops or is it Snopes?
What's that company called?
Jordy, I'm going to Snoops fact check you and say they are snoops.
I am snoops. I'm going to fact check you, Jordi, and say that they are not keeping it cold.
I'm going to say that it appeared that Jordi was being sarcastic there. The courtroom is known, it's an old building and they have actually pretty bad
ventilation in the courtroom itself. And so it's known for being a fairly kind of cold place
in general. One of the things that why I even mentioned Snoops.
No, I'm glad you interrupted me. I'm glad you interrupted me to Snoopy me. So thanks for Snoopy. Is when Snoops fact-checked, they're like, my cellist did not give the source that went on background about the Donald Trump smelling in the courtroom types of thing.
And so therefore, it can't be confirmed. I'm like, you realize if that's your basis of a Snoops, then like every reporter, every reporter who relies on sources i'll be like
fact check i cannot confirm that it's like oh yeah you can't reveal your sources but like the
funny thing about the story aside from the fact that every it's ever there's a lot funny about
the story um is that it is incredibly an incredibly well sourced story that we actually
have multiple sources all confirming the same
thing on this. And obviously we can't reveal the sources, but like this is, it happens to be a very
well-sourced bit of information. Like probably one of the better sourced stories that you will
ever honestly hear in the media. Like, I don't know how many stories have as many sources as
this one does. I'm just going to say that. Jordy, before I go into Donald Trump whining a little bit before court and then Donald
Trump whining a little bit more after court, it's just the whininess I think that a lot
of American people are getting to see who have not been following the day-to-day stuff.
And so sure, Americans are learning that Donald Trump is sitting there and he stinks and all
of those things, whatever.
But they're also seeing like, oh my God, this is a pretty whiny dude. He just
goes and just whines and complains about everything all day. And because of the attention that's being
brought to the trial, I think a lot of people are seeing that. You compare that though to like
President Biden today speaking in Virginia about climate with AOC and Senator
Bernie Sanders. You had President Biden last week in Scranton and then in Pittsburgh talking about
issues, just specific issues. Here is a policy that I did that reduced your health care costs.
Here's why you're paying less money for insulin and why you can afford life-saving care.
Here's how I'm protecting social security veterans. Here's how I am making sure you get
the healthcare you deserve from burn pits. Here's workers. Here's how I've worked to help unions.
Women, here's how I'm protecting reproductive rights. Judge me by my policies. Judge me by
what I've done. And that contrast cannot be more clear. But Jordy,
you had the opportunity to actually interview President Biden. And we will be showing here
shortly that interview with President Biden. For the very first time, everybody will get to see
that. Jordy, you did an incredible job on that interview with President Biden. But I want to tell everybody that I just want to show you the contrast. So let me just show you a little bit
of some clips of Donald Trump in courtroom whining. And let's just compare that to just
President Biden being normal. I just want normalcy. So before court, let's take a look at Donald Trump talking about putting up $175 million
in cash. But New York Attorney General Letitia James said the bonding company isn't good.
Trump did not put up $175 million in cash. He brought on a surety and the surety was defective
at first. And then Donald Trump did not put $175 million in cash. He had
to agree to that today when he was called out by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Play this clip.
Second of all, we have another trial going on right now. That's Letitia James. She campaigned
the fact that I will get Trump, I'm going to get Trump. And it has to do with a bond of $175
million. First of all, she doesn't want me to participate with financial companies in New York.
So we have a company, I guess, based in California.
It's a bonding company.
And I put up $175 million in cash.
But she says the bonding company is not good.
She doesn't like the bonding company because she doesn't know if the collateral is good.
And I put up $175 million in cash, and she's questioning the bonding company.
Well, when you put up cash, and the number is $175,
which is what we're supposed to be putting up, but I give it in cash,
she shouldn't be complaining about the bonding company.
The bonding company would be good for it because I put up the money.
If you have the cash, you wouldn't need the bonding company.
So like, let's make it the most basic of facts.
If you just had $175 million in cash, you would deposit that.
So you wanted to do an end run around that by using a surety.
And then you did not follow the legal requirements for a surety.
So today, at the same time,
opening statements were taking place in the Manhattan District Attorney criminal case.
After Trump was called out for not following New York law on the issue of the correct surety bond,
Donald Trump and his lawyers had to agree in the court that they would actually agree that the
surety would follow these rules,
that there would be kind of declarations that the money, that the cash would actually be posted.
And then the issue was resolved in the sense that Donald Trump then actually had to put the cash
in a Schwab account that was under the control of the surety. And we could all be like, and it's accurate,
the appellate division helped Donald Trump reduce the obligation from $464 million to $175 million
for the bond, not the underlying judgment. And that's unfair. I agree that that's unfair.
But also Donald Trump did not follow the proper steps. and now he had to be forced to do that today.
Here's Donald Trump whining about Justice in Goron, who he calls a crazed judge and a proceeding
taking place before a crazed judge. Now, here's the thing. When you see this, if Donald Trump
believed that this judge was crazed and all of these things, then why would you agree
to the settlement? Why would you agree when you were called out for your misconduct? Why wouldn't
you just say, hey, this person's crazed and look, appellate division, you've already reduced my
obligation for posting a bond. I'm going to appeal this. This is unfair because Trump knew that he got caught. And when he got caught, then he ultimately had to do, had to follow the law in this one instance. But just watch what he,
watch him call this judge crazed. Here, play this clip.
I just want you to know that that's taking place in front of an extremely crazed judge. He's the
most overturned judge in New York state. He was overturned four or five times on that case alone. That's, uh, you know, it is an odd dimension names. I want to be nice.
I want to be very nice, but, uh, I think like that, I think like what's going on right here
should never be happening. It's a very, very sad day in America. I can tell you that.
Just what all the voters want to hear, you know, as Donald Trump is ramping up his campaign, right? They want to hear about the intricacies of his shady bond deal to pay off his judgments, civil fraud judgments, and they want to hear about him whining about judges. Those are the issues that the people care about, Right, Ben? Right. Jordy, I want to contrast that to your interview with President
Biden. So Jordy had the opportunity to interview President Biden in Pittsburgh. That's where
Jordy's from. And you got to see this great speech that President Biden gave.
Before showing this interview of you and him, Jay, what'd you think about the speech?
The President Biden speech was amazing. It was really incredible because where we are,
you're in the Steelworkers Union, right? They're headquarters. And just when he was talking
to the folks there, the steelworkers, the union members, what you got the sense was,
is that these folks, what President Biden was saying, they truly believed what he was saying. And that's because President Biden, as they continued to say
throughout the times leading up to Biden taking the stage, that he actually stands with union
workers, that he's the first president in history to stand at a picket line with union members.
And that means so much to these folks on the ground.
So when President Biden talks about keeping jobs in the U.S., keeping manufacturing in the U.S.,
keeping workers in the U.S., it really resonates with folks on the ground here because he's got
the credibility to back that up. Forget this MAGA movement talking about how MAGA's America first.
They can't own that phrase. That phrase, when MAGA says it,
that's just a xenophobic rallying cry. Who's really America first, true and true? Are President
Biden, the Democrats, the Biden administration? Because what they mean by that is that they're
putting manufacturing first here in America, and that goes such a long way. And once again,
that message truly resonated with the folks on the ground here.
I want to play the video right now of Jordy's interview with President Biden. Let's play it.
Hey, everybody. I'm Jordy with the Midas Touch Network. I'm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania today,
and I have a very special guest with me. President Biden, how are you?
Good to see you, man.
Great to see you. Great to see you. Mr. President, let's talk about jobs. Now, what would you say to the people in the
Commonwealth and across the country? Well, look, the people in the Commonwealth and people all
across the country just want an even chance. They want a shot. Thanks to my bipartisan infrastructure
law, we announced over 51,000 new infrastructure projects all across America. So far, we're just getting started. You may remember
my predecessor promised infrastructure week after week after week for four years and never built a
damn thing. Nothing. No, I'm serious. An old trickle-down economy that you give tax breaks
to the very wealthy and it'll trickle down to help people. It never worked. And so I've changed the whole notion.
We're going to build from the middle out and the bottom up,
and that's what we're doing.
And it's created 800,000 manufacturing jobs,
thousands of them here in Pennsylvania,
as well as making sure that we're not only creating those jobs,
but we're creating 15 million new jobs.
And by the way, the only two presidents of the American
industry that ever lost jobs from the time they got elected to the time they left were a guy named Herbert Hoover and this guy,
what's his name? Trump. He lost them too. And lots of people in Pittsburgh. We just want normalcy.
We don't like chaos. What would you say to them? I'd say they're right. Look, I'm more optimistic
about the prospects of the country than I've been in a long, long time. I refuse to believe that the MAGA Republican philosophy
of burned everything down is right.
I just did an interview in Scranton today.
I went to a Mormon world,
had my uncle's name etched in it.
And I'm reminded that that's not who we are
when we talk like Trump.
Trump talked about the fact that, you know,
he wouldn't go to a Mormon world
or fallen soldiers because they were losers and suckers. That's not who we are. That's not the
kind of people we are. We're decent, honorable people, people given a chance they can get
anything done. And that's what we're going to do in this country. And switching gears here,
when you were in Pueblo, Colorado, you actually met my brothers. And then just a few short weeks
after that, Congresswoman Boebert, she left her district.
Now, is that a coincidence or dark Brandon at work?
Classified.
Mr. President, thank you so much for your time today.
Thanks. Appreciate it.
Thank you.
Jordy, I want to let you know how proud I am of you. I thought you did an incredible interview.
You really did a very, very good job with that. I thought your questions were spot on. And it was good just like I love seeing positivity and like loving people who are dealt with and addressed, and they need to be handled with
realism and a realistic approach to the problems. But I prefer leaders who want hope instead of
fear. I want leaders who bring people together instead of sowing division. That's so fundamental
to my vision and our vision and what it means to be part of this Midas Mighty community.
And so you represented us so well. I want to talk more about that than, of course,
I want to talk about what Donald Trump was doing after court, which I believe to be a gag order violation as well. We'll talk about all of that and more.
Let's take our first quick break of the show.
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again lead in such a pivotal and important area and contrasting that with Donald Trump and MAGA.
I also want to talk a little bit about in this show, the vote in the House of Representatives
to authorize funding to Ukraine and how you now have all these MAGAs wanting to oust MAGA Mike
Johnson, their Speaker of the House, after ousting their prior Speaker of the House,
Kevin McCarthy. And I also couldn't help but reflect upon for MAGA Mike, and I would always say this about Kevin McCarthy, by disassociating from Donald Trump and MAGA or not just being their stooge or their lapdog or whatever, then you can exercise and wield real power. Like what Mike Johnson did over this weekend,
it wasn't Republican, it wasn't Democrat, it was the right thing for the world.
And he showed that's what real power looks like. I mean, Kevin McCarthy may have been
Speaker of the House, but he had zero power. He was beholden to Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor
Greene, who would follow him around wherever he would go, and he would be taking orders, quite literally, from Donald Trump, and he couldn't exercise any power. exercise leadership. And sometimes leadership is disagreeing with who's in office. One of the
things that I like about what Bernie Sanders has said, and President Biden reposted this,
in Senator Sanders' endorsement of President Biden, Sanders goes, I disagree with the way
President Biden does some things, but I know that President Biden is fighting
for workers and is fighting for our democracy. And that's important to me. And I'm letting you
know that I'm emphatically supporting him. Could you ever imagine a situation where Donald Trump
would post anything of somebody saying something like that? Like, I disagree with so-and-so.
In fact, on the contrary, our researchers have found more than a dozen example.
Every single month they find dozens of examples of Donald Trump taking articles from the Internet and specifically redacting portions of the articles that say anything that's even the slightest bit critical of him.
And then he posts those article as propaganda pieces on his social media network. So we know that he would never do that because we know he takes out,
even if it seems like the tiniest slight against him, he does not post them. He whites them out.
Brett, and think about this. We've reported on this, that Donald Trump has a lady by the name of Natalie Harp, who he's paid about $105,000.
And her job is to follow him around with a portable printer.
And then throughout the day to find right-wing media articles that are flattering to him,
she then prints them out.
And she's in the courtroom.
And so she goes out to print them out.
And then she hands in the courtroom. And so she goes out to print them out and then she hands him the articles.
And then he goes through the articles and makes notes with his Sharpie on it and then
kind of removes things that he doesn't like.
And ultimately he decides what he's going to post on his social media.
But then he takes these articles that a person who's hired to give him flattering articles
about him gives to him.
Then he goes out to the press and shows this picture book that they create for him. I'm just thinking to myself, I'm like, that is some Gaddafi, Kim Jong-un, some weird and deranged and malignant narcissistic stuff to some degree that like what in the world is going on?
You know, one of the statements that I liked was Michael Douglas made the statement.
He was on CNN and he was asked why he supports President Biden.
One of the main reasons that's Trump's picture book right there.
And Natalie Harp prints out these articles
for him. And then he shows them to the press that he's paid $105,000 and he pays her $105,000 to do
that job. And then when he's on the golf course, she follows him around in a golf cart and does
that. It's so bizarre. Michael Douglas went on CNN and he was asked, well, why is it that you
support President Biden? He goes, let me just take away the politics from it for a second. And let me just give you this example. Everybody in President
Biden's cabinet wants to work with him in a second term. They all like working for him.
On the other hand, not a single person in Donald Trump's cabinet wants to work with him. And not
only that, they've all warned us that he's a threat
to democracy. I mean, just think about that. This isn't as Donald Trump says, oh, he's communist or
whatever. Donald Trump's own cabinet, including his own former vice president, says that Donald
Trump's not a conservative, that he's a threat to democracy, that he should not be trusted near nuclear codes.
I mean, we've seen the interview of his defense secretary, his former defense secretary,
Mark Esper, who says what a national security threat Donald Trump poses. I interviewed Donald
Trump's former national security advisor, John Bolton, who says that Donald Trump's conduct should be disqualifying from the office.
Could you imagine if Vice President Kamala Harris said something like that about President Biden?
Could you imagine if the Secretary of State or Defense Secretary ever made a comment like that
about Biden? Wouldn't that be front page news?
It would be somewhere on the front page of the New York Times.
Somewhere.
For days, for weeks, for months.
They'd write tons of different variations of stories just like that.
And by the way, justifiably so.
I can't think of- Sure, no, totally.
I can't think of a more damning or damaging thing to someone seeking the highest office in our land
when your vice president, your defense secretary, your national security advisor,
your chief of staff all say that you should not hold the position.
What's more newsworthy than the definition of newsworthy?
What is more newsworthy than that?
You know, and oftentimes when we criticize the media and their coverage and all of these
things, it's like they will both sides these issues.
And I think to myself, y'all are not even covering in any meaningful or material way.
Totally.
The most basic things that Trump, the people closest to Trump who held the highest positions are saying,
do not put this man back in power or he will cause massive destruction to the United States.
By the way, the people who are going to be testifying in this district attorney trial,
David Pecker and Hope Hicks, they're going to be people who worked for Donald Trump.
These are people who worked with Trump.
In the DC case, Donald Trump's out there posting every minute.
I should have absolute immunity to order SEAL Team 6 to kill my political opponents, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah.
And he's like tweeting a hundred times or posting on social media platform a hundred times about absolute immunity.
The key witnesses are Mark Meadows, like his former chief of staff,
are his people, the closest people to him.
Rhino, right. But Ben, to your earlier point there, not only does the media not cover it
appropriately, they bend over backwards to try, like they're in their own heads,
that if they report the actual facts of what's going on,
all of a sudden in their minds, they're like, oh, I'm being way too liberal. No, you're being honest
if you report the facts that Trump's own cabinet members won't back the guy. To bring this to a
sports example, I know you two love giving sports examples, but I got a real one playing out right
now. And I'm not comparing Trump to Belichick, Bill Belichick, the longtime Patriots head coach. He's having a hard time getting a job right now because the people
closest to him, the Robert Crafts, the Tom Brady's, they're not going to bat for him with
all these new organizations to land him a head coach. Hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up, hold
up. You see what Jordy said right there, Ben? Not going to bat for him. I would say that pun does
not work in the world of football.
I would say that backfired on you. Sports knowledge, let's go. Boom.
That's just the general expression of someone having someone's back when you don't go to the bat. Go to bat? Is he a baseball manager? Sure. Okay. I mean, I see what you're saying,
but I'm making an excellent point. So please quiet down. So, so, so all I'm saying here is that's another real world
example right there of kind of this playing out that, that this person who, you know, had all
these people around him, that they won't go and have his back to, to get him a new job somewhere
else. And that is major news. Like a lot of people in the sports world are talking about that now
to bring it to Donald Trump for whatever reason, I don't know why legacy media is refusing to cover it. So I'm happy Michael Douglas, of all people, shout out Michael Douglas, man. I
think he watches the show. I'm glad he spoke out against it and just pointed out the obvious.
If the people closest to you don't have your back, well, that's saying something.
I'm snoops back checking you. I'm not sure if Michael Douglas watches the show.
I didn't say he definitively watches it. I said, I caveated saying, I think he watches it.
All right.
Bring on Michael Douglas. Next segment.
In other words, do not give Bill Belichick any nuclear codes, everybody. I think that's
what Jordan was trying to say.
I think it was an excellent point. It was pretty good.
I really think it's a good point. All right. After the criminal trial concluded today, day five,
Donald Trump further incriminated himself by saying he didn't even take a tax deduction for
the legal expenses. And therefore he thinks that that somehow is exculpatory evidence for him.
Here, let's play this clip. It was just at the last minute that he decided to do it. It's a case that, if you're looking back,
it goes back many, many years, 2015, maybe before that. And it's a case as to bookkeeping,
which is a very minor thing in terms of the law, in terms of all the violent crime that's
going on outside as we speak, right outside outside as we speak this is a case where
you pay a lawyer he's a lawyer and they call it a legal expense that's the exact term they use
legal expense in the books and another thing that wasn't even said was we never even deducted it as
a tax deduction so that takes a whole vast most people want to said was we never even deducted it as a tax deduction. So that takes
a whole vast, most people want to deduct everything. We never even took it as a tax deduction.
But they called the payment to a lawyer a legal expense in the books. They didn't call
it construction. They didn't say you're building a building. It called a payment to a lawyer.
Because as you know, Cone is a lawyer, represented a lot
of people over the years. Now, I'm not the only one. And it wasn't very good in a lot of ways
in terms of his representation, but he represented a lot of people.
So here's the thing. Donald Trump has the ability to assert what's called an advice of counsel defense,
where Donald Trump can basically blame his lawyers and say, it was my lawyer's fault.
Donald Trump decided he will not be making an advice of counsel defense.
So just start with that premise right there, that everything he's saying to the public, he's not going to be
saying to the jury because he's distinctly said, I will not be blaming the lawyers. If you're going
to blame the lawyers, you have to testify in an advice of counsel defense. And you have to say,
here's where I relied on the lawyers. And then Donald Trump can present to a jury everything he said.
So to all of the people who hear that and they go, okay, I get that. And this, you know,
to the extent there's any MAGA people who are dabbling here or just even right-wing people
who don't fully understand what's happening in this trial, I would just ask you the most basic
thing, right? The same way
Michael Douglas made it very basic. Why do the people closest to Trump not want to work with
Trump? It's like a very basic non-political thing, right? Why do all the people who work with Biden
want to still work with Biden? So my question for you with Donald Trump there is why wouldn't
Donald Trump make that argument in a court? If he truly thought that he wanted to argue all of those
things and that this is a legal expense and the lawyer was the one who put it down and he didn't
support that, make an advice of counsel defense and say that. But Donald Trump is not doing that.
Also, Donald Trump takes deductions for all of his other legal expenses. So one of the things that you would show is to show this is not like the
other. One of these things is not like the other. Yes. Why would this one not be a deduction and all
your other legal expenses be a deduction? If this was just a normal, ordinary cost and expense of
doing business, why wouldn't you take a deduction the way you did with
all of your other expenses? That would seem to be logical. That's why Donald Trump saying that
is actually incriminating. That's the type of evidence that will actually be used by the
district attorney's office to say, hey, he did not deduct. He did not treat this like a legal expense. Also, legal expenses
have to be for something called services rendered. So what was the service that you were paying
Michael Cohen for? What's your theory? Where's your retainer agreement? What were you paying
Michael Cohen that money to do? Why did Michael Cohen have to go and take out a loan and then
use that to pay off Stormy Daniels while you were having these catch and kill schemes?
And then you paid him off the way that you did. So this is actually not helpful stuff for Donald
Trump at all. I mean, Ben, why would you not try to write this off when you write off literally
every other expense, including like your son's Boy Scout dues, as Asha Rangappa said, because
you're trying to hide it, because you don't want to leave the paper trail. It's kind of about what
this whole case is about. But Ben, to the services rendered point, I think your legal analysis,
obviously astute.
But Alina Haba, who for some reason, Donald Trump has chosen not to put on the case, but instead has her like screaming to cameras somewhere outside the courtroom.
She has a different interpretation.
I'll play this. And now what?
We're here because of something that happened when he was in the White House that wasn't even wrong.
It was not wrong.
You hire lawyers to solve problems, lawyers solve those problems, you pay them. That's it. This wasn't even wrong. It was not wrong. You hire lawyers to solve problems,
or solve those problems, you pay them. That's it. This is a joke. It's an affront to the American
Constitution. It's an affront to our judicial system. And it's an affront to every lawyer
that cares about their license, that cares about what is right and wrong.
Ultimate projection and confession. It's an affront to every lawyer who cares about their license. She was sanctioned in
that case in the Southern District of Florida, nearly a million dollars for filing a frivolous
lawsuit. And we know that she struggled to even introduce evidence at the E. Jean Carroll case.
So for her to be saying that, but can I, I want to just, I have this question. Let's remove the legal aspects for a second. I was watching
some of these Sunday shows where they would bring on a bunch of right-wing people,
right-wing governors, and they were all focused on, look, this was a legal expense and blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah. This is totally justified. They would use all of the spin and the code words. I just have a very basic
humanity type of question, which none of the reporters ask when these people go on the
networks. Are you okay with this? Not even the legality of it, which I believe is a crime and
I'm not okay with. Are you okay with the concept while you are all out there preaching morality
and want to control the lives of people and saying these people can't get married and you
can't seek reproductive care? You're telling me that you're good with the fact that when Melania
was pregnant and then gave birth, Donald Trump was having sex with someone named Karen McDougal, who was for a long extended period of time. And then while he was doing that, he then cheated on both Melania and his mistress McDougal with Stormy Daniels on the one night McDougal, but then she wasn't there. And then the one opportunity he had to have sex with someone else, he then did that night
with Stormy Daniels.
And then how he would talk about, allegedly, he would have lots of conversations about
Ivanka.
And of course, he gave the interview about the thing that he thinks he has in common
with his daughter, Ivanka, is sex.
And then you covered it up with hush money payments.
Assume it was lawful. Just assume for a second. Okay, you're allowed to do that,
which you're not allowed to do. Are you okay with that behavior? Is that what you want in the-
I'll say this, Ben. We saw from Donald Trump's canceled rally in North Carolina over the weekend the way that these people often rationalize those sorts of things that you were speaking about. is he usually gets some sort of Trump-loving pastor, someone who calls themselves a pastor at least,
to come on before the rally and to talk about how Trump is basically like a descendant of God,
is basically this kind of blasphemous speech that they get.
And over this past weekend in North Carolina, before Trump didn't show because of the rain,
this pastor who spoke at this Trump rally said the
following, and I quote, we pray your blessings on President Trump. We pray that you give him
a sense of mercy and grace. Lord, we thank you that you use imperfect people to do imperfect
things. So that's the line that they go. They go, oh, well, he may be imperfect, but he's doing
exactly what we want. But he's banning abortion around the country. But he's doing X, Y, and Z.
And it's that kind of level of rationalization and just pure kind of cultish devotion to this
individual. That's how they rationalize all of the things that you're saying and things that in a normal circumstance, you'd be like, this is an issue of basic humanity.
People are able to twist themselves into pretzels or even more in order to try to justify just the horrific things that Donald Trump has done, does, continues to do, etc.
Can I be a little bit more cynical here? It's just a cognitive dissonance that's happening right here in the hopes of grifting and making
money, right? I think you were so spot on, Brett, with this person who Donald Trump calls a pastor
to come on and speak on his behalf. Well, what actually are his credentials? I wonder what
those would be if you actually dig into them because donald trump not infrequent uses non-union labors to stand behind him at rallies holding union signs he uses these people right
as a way for them to benefit either monetarily or by some sort of fame and nancy there have been
this proliferation of people who call themselves pastors who who may be pastors, right? They may be, but they've taken
on this MAGA identity, which is the antithesis of the religion that they espouse. And why do
they do it, Jordy? I think you're exactly right, because they get praised by Donald Trump. They
get opportunities to get more money, to grift more money off people. And it is what it comes down to in a lot of
respects. And no one exudes this cognitive dissonance more than Nancy Mace and Republican
Nancy Mace. I mean, she goes on these talk shows all the time and she's asked, you know, point
blank, like, how can you, you know, how can you be okay with the behaviors that you're seeing from
Donald Trump? And time and time again, she like skirts around the answers. And it's just so pathetic because ultimately at the end of the
day, like you just want people in there that, that want good leadership and good leadership
takes the form of many different, you know, ways and structures, but at the heart of it,
it's just genuinely being a good person. So how can you align yourself with someone who's so evil,
who's so vile, who's so putrid and
hatred and spews just so much hate while they divide the country? And you could sit up there
and sit on your high horse, MAGA Republicans, and say, hey, you know what? I'm okay with that.
That's my guy. I don't care. That's my guy. I'm going to make every excuse in the book.
And the only thing that you could point to is they're making money off of it. It's their grift. I couldn't agree more with you, Jay. I still want to share with you more of
Donald Trump, not just incriminating himself, but violating the gag order. And then Brett,
there's a big gag order contempt hearing taking place on Tuesday, which of course we'll be
covering here on the Midas Touch Network.
And then Brett, I want to get your take on President Biden's speech in Virginia and the
House of Representatives passing that all-important Ukraine funding bill.
MAGA Mike finally grew a little bit of a spine.
The final vote was 311 to 112.
It actually felt for a moment like a functional
house of representatives again, even just for that moment. We'll be right back after our last
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Have those every morning. And once again, folks, if you have not done so already, click the links in the
descriptions. It takes you right there. But more specifically, check out LifeLock, lifelock.com
slash Midas. Trust me, you don weekend, I was in Simi Valley.
And I looked at what to do in Simi Valley.
And one of the things that I made the connection when I was there is that the Ronald Reagan National Library is in Simi Valley.
So I decided, you know, I hadn't been there, you know,
and it's not like I'm not by any means or anywhere close to a supporter of Reagan. Let me make that
very clear. And that would be an understatement. But I was nearby and I wanted just to see it
and take a look at it and observe, you know, what was going on there. Setting aside the politics, when you go in
there and you look at at least the quotes that they emphasized from Reagan, and even though
they're trying to obviously push a narrative, it was a lot of things though about looking forward,
our best days are ahead of us, it can be done. There's no limit to what a man can do or
where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit. Those were the statements all around.
One of the cool things about it is you actually get to go in the Air Force One that was around
at the time. They actually have Air Force One there. You can walk into it. They have a replica
of the Oval Office. But what I still felt, despite my profound, again, understatement, but profound disagreement
for the policies of Ronald Reagan, was still a respect and a reverence for the United States
of America, and for our democracy, and for our institutions, and for normalcy, and for our democracy and for our institutions and for normalcy and for at least
utilizing the language of hope. Perhaps even though the policies were not that, in my opinion,
and you can disagree, the language was about that. I was just thinking to myself,
here's someone who I profoundly disagree with on
politics, but ultimately I still felt when I left the library had a reverence and a respect for the
United States of America. And it's left an impression on me in terms of just how things have gotten so different and so bad because of Donald Trump
and because of how the Republican Party is no longer the Republican Party anymore, how it's
this mega. And I was thinking when I was there and why I'm even bringing this up and it's a segue into Brett passing it to you about this
Ukraine funding bill was, of course, Ronald Reagan saying, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall,
tear down that wall, and comparing it to the fact that under Trump, whose very first foreign invite was to the Russian leaders to come into the Oval
Office. Then Trump shared military secrets with them and then said, I'm the president,
I can do it. It's fine. He didn't deny that he did it. That was the first thing that he did in
the Oval Office. That image of Kislyak there from Russia laughing and mocking us like, look where I
am, look where I am.
We went from that to look where I am right now.
And that Trump wouldn't allow anybody there, no American interpreter.
It was just the Russians in the Oval Office.
And all of them were laughing as Trump was
giving them military secrets.
And that's probably one of, you know, amongst, hey, Russia, if you're listening, hack into
the emails.
It's just one of those moments that still in 2024, people don't talk about.
Like, he did that.
What a, could you imagine if Obama did that? Could you imagine if Biden did that?
Could you imagine if Bill Clinton did that? And why do we have these different standards
when it applies to Donald Trump? And one of the things, and I talked about this on Legal AF over
the weekend, it's like enough. Trump's a loser. Trump is weak. You've got to stand up.
You've got to set boundaries and you've got to just stand up to that stuff.
And when you stand up, they back down every single time because they're weak and they're
losers.
And all they do is whine.
And Brett, that moment you talked about with Democratic Congress member Swazi, as you had Chip Roy,
whining, whining, whining, and Swazi, Democrat Swazi is like, not working, still not working,
not how we do things anymore. We're adults. We're not behaving like that. That's how you have to
treat them. And when you do that, we collectively exercise so much more power. So I think everybody gets the point of Donald Trump whining after court.
I'm not going to show more clips on that.
Brett, tell us about the Ukraine funding bill and tell us about Virginia.
Sure.
Well, let's start with that clip from Representative Swazi.
How about we start there?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Swazi is recognized.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Roy, the histrionics and the hyperbole are not working. You just said so yourself. It's not working. We're about to pass. It's not working. It's not working. The bottom line is.
The gentleman will suspend. House will be in order. By the way, that's got to be the biggest upgrade in congressional history to go from George Santos to Tom Suozzi. Try to find me a bigger upgrade in congressional history. I'm not quite sure it exists, but you could feel kind of brewing under the surface in the House, this just disdain for MAGA, this kind of breaking point that we have had enough. And it's showing itself in a variety of different ways. So first, let's
break down what happened on this Ukraine bill. Obviously, a long time in the making here, but the
House on Saturday, overwhelmingly in a bipartisan fashion, passed this $95 billion foreign aid
package for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, that also provides humanitarian aid to Gaza. Mike Johnson
finally brought this bill to the floor
after months and months of delays. The final vote was 311 to 112. One representative voted present.
And following the passage of the bill, you saw the Democrats erupt into cheers and they waved
Ukrainian flags in celebration on the House floor to the chagrin of the Republicans in the House. Here is that moment.
On this vote, the ayes are 311 and the nays are 112. The bill is passed.
One voting present. I missed it, but thank you.
Okay. The House will be in order.
And so as this happened, you also saw MAGA representatives like Marjorie Taylor Greene,
she started walking through and giving the thumbs down like a little baby to the Democrats
in the House.
You saw Lauren Boebert going and going, boo, boo, just like booing people.
They interviewed Marjorie Taylor Greene and Boebert and all of them outside of the building.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, honestly, when I heard her speaking, it kind of sounded like she was
near tears, like she was devastated. She was sent there to do Putin's bidding and she failed and she
was worried about what was going to happen. You know, like she seemed like scared and then sad.
And I felt like that moment right there made the MAGA movement look weaker than ever.
So the legislation, what it does, it allocates $60 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel
with humanitarian aid for Gaza, $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific region.
It's now going to head to the Senate where it's expected to pass by a wide margin. It also has the TikTok divest or ban component that was delayed to nine months
from six months. It's expected to pass swiftly in the Senate. Then Biden will sign it. And from what
all the experts are saying, basically almost instantaneously once this bill is signed,
the weapons are going to be able to make their way to Ukraine.
It's like we have it all ready to go once this bill is signed by President Biden.
They could get there not even within days necessarily, but within hours.
So I think that's good to know.
And this bill has just been so long to come along.
And Speaker Johnson had delayed and delayed and delayed it. That's why I'm hesitant to say he deserves credit while I say that I'm happy that he finally changed his mind and brought this to the floor. But just think about the stupidity also of the Republicans here. They had an option here to bring to the floor. They demanded, right, we need border security with the Ukraine aid package. We're not going to pass Ukraine aid unless we get border security with the Ukraine aid package. We're not going to pass the Ukraine aid unless
we get border security. And so working in good faith, what the Democrats did is they teamed up
with a very conservative Senator, James Lankford, and they made a lot of concessions, a lot of
concessions on what's the most comprehensive bipartisan border safety bill that has been
out there that has had a chance of passing
maybe ever. And Republicans torpedoed their own bill and they called Lankford a rhino.
They made him public enemy number one. And now just think about the stupidity of that.
As we flash forward now to this past weekend, where they end up passing the Ukraine aid and
didn't even get the border safety legislation that they wanted. They tried to hold the Ukraine aid and didn't even get the border safety legislation that they wanted.
They tried to hold the Ukraine aid hostage for something that they ended up torpedoing,
even though Democrats were on board with it. And for what? Anyway, I'm happy that at this point,
the Ukraine aid is going through. And I know the Ukrainians are happy as well. It's been great
seeing the messages coming out of Ukraine following the passage. Here's a message from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He said, I'm grateful to the United
States House of Representatives, both parties and personally Speaker Mike Johnson, for the decision
that keeps history on the right track. Democracy and freedom will always have global significance
and will never fail as long as America helps to protect it. The vital USAID bill passed today by
the House will keep the war from expanding, save thousands and thousands of lives, and help both of our nations
to become stronger. Just peace and security can only be attained through strength. We hope that
the bills will be supported in the Senate and sent to President Biden's desk. Thank you, America.
And then Oleksandr Shcherba, a Ukrainian who we have featured on the Midas Touch podcast, Ben has interviewed him, shared a text that he received from a Ukrainian soldier in Donbass who said of the Republicans here was so horrific.
And so many lives were lost due to their inaction.
And you see the Ukrainians literally following our politics day by day, praying that we would
pass this legislation.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, I told you she was whining, she was crying.
And now she's going on
all the shows, you know, threatening to oust Mike Johnson, but she really doesn't have the support.
So she's balking on it. So now she's just kind of whining and saying voters are done with the GOP.
They're done with us. They're done. They're angry on a whole nother level. And here's what really
worries me. They're done with the Republican Party. They are absolutely done with
Republican leadership like Mike Johnson, who totally sold us out to the Democrats, joined
the Uniparty faster than anyone we've ever seen in history and literally made a night and day
change in a matter of months, betrayed everyone, betrayed the entire Republican Party, betrayed Republican
voters, betrayed the Republican conference. And voters, voters are so angry this time,
but I'm really worried. I am really worried. They're so angry. They're not going to give
us the majority back in 2025. And this is why we absolutely have to hold Mike Johnson accountable.
This is why our Republican majority is going to have to do the heavy lifting.
And this is why he cannot remain speaker.
Frankly, the American people are sick and tired of people like Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Marjorie Taylor Greene lives in her gerrymandered bubble where she thinks her ideas are popular
because she really doesn't have to run against anybody.
That's a serious threat. She is able to, she just is on kind of Twitter
all day where she gets this infinite feedback loop of support. So she thinks, you may think
she's the majority, but the fact are most of the American people are sick of her and a large
majority of the country supported this aid and they support Democrats and Republicans working
together, especially when it comes to bills like this.
And quite frankly, Brett, sorry to cut you off real quick though, but also the American people
have no idea what the hell she's talking about. The Uniparty, she's talking to this very condensed
like Magiverse bubble that just lives on X. Nobody cares about her. She just screams and
screams and screams. And she, again, is one of these people that doesn't want to help the American people. She just wants to throw a fit. And thank goodness,
Brett, I was getting concerned that we're going to do a Marjorie Taylor Greene segment
without you doing the impression. So glad you're able to get that in big, bro.
Jordy, it's always important that I give the people what they want, right?
I was asking for it. The chat was asking for it.
I know the chat are saying right now,
do more impressions.
I need to see more Marjorie Taylor Greene impressions.
But if I do too much, it loses, you know, it loses luster.
But I want to show this.
Not only are the American people done with Marjorie Taylor Greene,
but I think this is a warning shot fired by the Murdoch empire.
And a lot of these actual right-wing publications,
when you look at some of the headlines that have run recently, check out this New York post, a front
page following the vote, Moscow Marjorie with a picture of her wearing a Russian hat, GOP rebels
defeated his house passes $61 billion in Ukraine aid. Remember this was just a day or two after
Fox, another Murdoch property,
ran an opinion piece called Marjorie Taylor Greene is an idiot. She is trying to wreck the GOP.
And then another Murdoch publication, the Wall Street Journal opinion section,
called her representative mayhem, Taylor Greene. And then you have even Newsmax,
not a Murdoch-owned publication, but another MAGA propaganda center,
saying, opinion, who put Marjorie Taylor Greene in charge? So I think you're seeing, finally,
the breaking down of this MAGA movement kind of from within. This internal rift is finally boiling
over to a point where it's reached these publications. And I think it's an interesting
thing to continue to monitor. There was a Republican congressman over the weekend who called the other Republicans like
Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene that he has to work with on a daily basis, he called them
scumbags. And now Mike Johnson is actually going to his district to show you now kind of the people
in the party that Mike Johnson is trying to reward kind kind of boxing out this MAGA strain. To Ben's point, probably
because for the first time, he actually was able to do something and show that he actually had a
little bit of power. Meanwhile, in the world of getting stuff done, you see President Biden
celebrating Earth Day today, announcing $7 billion in grant funding for solar projects, which should
benefit up to a million low-income
households. He also announced Action on the Climate Corps, which is something that we
covered here, which prepares young Americans for jobs at Clean Energy. There's going to be a lot
of these kind of volunteer opportunities and whatnot for young people to get involved in
initiatives to help the climate and to do a bit of service for the country. I think it's a great
idea. There's a website going up for applications where people could apply for these climate core jobs. It's
like a very New Deal era sort of program that's trying to move young people into these low carbon
energy climate resilience jobs through a fellowship program. And the administration
spent a lot of time today highlighting President Biden's efforts on the
economy. I mean, he's been the most, on the environment rather. I mean, he's been the most
kind of pro-climate president that we've ever seen with his initiatives. And you can see this
graphic here where he signed the largest climate investment ever into law, rejoined the Paris
Climate Agreement instantly, launched the Climate Corps, protected 26 million acres of land and water,
canceled remaining oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and supercharged U.S. clean energy manufacturing through bills like the Inflation Reduction Act and the
infrastructure law. President Biden was there in Virginia today touting the policies on the environment with AOC, with Bernie Sanders.
And AOC was highlighting efforts of the administration and the progress that President
Biden has made for the climate. Here is a moment from that. Today is a historic day and a landmark
achievement for organizers and countless young people as we officially open the American Climate Corps to the public.
I want to thank President Biden for working with us to take swift and bold executive action
to protect the planet by launching the American Climate Corps,
and also for investing billions in clean, resilient energy via the Solar for All competition,
among so many other climate victories.
As you'll hear in today's announcement, it is no accident that this president is overseeing
the single biggest federal investment in tackling the climate crisis in our nation's history.
And now, as President Biden's touting
his accomplishments on the environment, I just want to do a quick flashback to how Donald Trump
handled the environment. If you remember during those California fires, Donald Trump was speaking
with an official about the science of climate change. And there was this very defining moment,
I would say, of the Trump
presidency. I think one area of mutual agreement and priority is vegetation management. But I think
we want to work with you to really recognize the changing climate and what it means to our forests
and actually work together with that science. That science is going to be key because if we
ignore that science and sort of put our head in the sand and think it's all about vegetation
management, we're not going to succeed together protecting Californians.
Okay.
It'll start getting cooler.
You just watch.
I wish science agreed with you.
Oh, well.
I don't think science knows, actually.
I mean, the man's an idiot.
The man's an idiot.
I don't think science knows.
I think it's going to get cooler.
Like, you can't have somebody who denies reality in the White House, especially when pushed aside all of the science and decided
to make his own theories about how maybe you could cure COVID during what was the worst
pandemic of our lifetimes. This was a few years ago, Donald Trump.
Brian. Thank you very much.
So I have a question that probably some of you are thinking of if you're totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting.
So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light.
And I think you said that hasn't been checked, but you're going to test it.
And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way.
And I think you said you're going to test that too.
Sounds interesting.
Right, and then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute,
one minute.
And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning because you see it gets on
the lungs and it does a tremendous number of the lungs. So it'd be interesting to check that so
that you're going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me. So we'll
see. But the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute, that's pretty powerful.
Four years ago, people, four years ago to the day, Tuesday, that's what happened. So I think
this episode could be summed up, Ben, stop electing idiots. We need serious people. We need adults in
charge. When you break down what he just said there, if you were to show a transcript of it,
it's even far worse than him saying, basically inject yourself with bleach.
Like every layer of that, even like how he started, we're talking about like, you know,
for people who are into those things and talking about shots from the inside. And, you know,
one of the things about not just being a clinical malignant narcissist sociopath, but probably
the biggest sociopath malignant narcissist, perhaps almost ever but probably the biggest sociopath, malignant narcissist, perhaps almost
ever in the world, is it'd be one thing if you didn't know a lot, but then relied on really
smart people. He constantly needs to be the person who substitutes his own horrific judgment in place of people who are smarter than him or people who have
good judgment. He has to constantly surround himself with the stupidest people because he's
not intelligent and anybody who's smarter than him threatens him and he feels threatened by
versus. It's actually a great thing that there are all these experts who can contribute and make things better for everybody, where he has to be the smartest guy in the room. That's a pretty stupid room, folks, because he's not all that bright. And again, that's a major understatement. So if you also just think about the types of people who he would, and it goes back to
the Michael Douglas statement about who would Donald Trump surround himself with, who are
the types of people who would be on the Supreme Court?
It would be people like Alina Haba and Kash Patel and Rudy Giuliani.
It would be people like that and who are even dumber than him.
These are the people who will be making life or death decisions over your life, over you and your
family and your community in this country and the world. People like Marjorie Taylor Greene will
become the Secretary of State. People like Lauren Boebert will get elevated to major positions.
The dumbest of the dumb will be in the most important, the most dangerous and vile, will
have these leadership positions as well.
I think the American people are starting to focus on that and recognize that.
I don't like to talk about polls, but, you know, where Donald Trump and MAGA always lies about it, I think it's helpful to point out the recent Morrist poll that has President Biden up like three, I think it is, when it's a head-to-head, up like five when you add the other candidates, and up seven when you have like the likely voters who have voted before. And again, vote and focus and,
and I don't want to ever get complacent, but I do want to push back against these bogus right-wing
narratives out there when president Biden's up in the aggregate and up in a poll like,
like Morris. So I'll leave it at that. Jordy, what a great interview you did with president Biden.
Now that we've officially played
that, I want to speak with everybody on our after show at patreon.com slash Midas Touch.
Now you can give more of the details about that interview. Let's talk about that at our after show.
We hope you all have enjoyed this episode. We've enjoyed spending this time with you as always.
Thank you all so much for all of your support
and all of the hard work that you do.
Once again, it's patreon.com slash Midas Touch.
Oh, and on our live feed, we'll have,
not on our live feed, on our regular YouTube feed
as soon as this ends, we have a great interview
between Denver Riggleman with his new show,
Coalition of the Sane and Lev Parnas. I mean,
I've never heard Lev say these things that he said before. You're going to really-
And it's a two-parter and one has some bombshells in it. And then part two has even more bombshells
in it. So check out part one right after this and also on the Coalition of the Sane podcast feed.
Yeah, they have the podcast. You could subscribe to Coalition of the Sane podcast right here on the Midas Touch channel. We'll show that live interview. It's short. It's like 20
minutes or it's not that long. And then also separately, you could subscribe to the Coalition
of the Sane YouTube channel. That's growing as well. Just search on YouTube Coalition of the
Sane. Thanks for watching. Jordy, take it away. Shout out to the Midas Mighty. our soul. We will get it right
whenever...
It's Ken Harbaugh with the Midas Touch Network.
The film Against All Enemies,
which I co-produced with Ben Mycelis
and this network, has won awards
around the world for its
up-close portrayal of America's
insurrectionist movement. It premieres in the
U.S. on March 29th on Amazon
and Apple TV.
Go to againstallenemiesfilm.com or click the link below. But don't just watch Against All Enemies.
Tell your friends about it. It's one more way to hold accountable those who threaten our democracy.
Thanks, Midas Mighty. Let's use our power well.