The MeidasTouch Podcast - Trump’s attorneys PREPARE FOR CRIMINAL CHARGES as Republicans Betray Veterans

Episode Date: August 2, 2022

On today’s episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, we sit down with former United States Navy Pilot, Ken Harbaugh! Ken is also the former President of Team Rubicon Global & current Host of the ‘Burn the Boats’ Podcast. A veteran advocate, Ken discusses how our vets are reacting to the Republicans BLOCKING the PACT Act, which would have provided medical care for vets exposed to toxic burn pits during their deployment. In this emotional interview, we also chat with Ken about the vortex that is the “Ultra MAGA” / Right Wing media and his relationship with disgraced Missouri governor and current Republican Senate candidate, Eric Greitens, who was sucked into the self proclaimed “orange mafia” that is the Republican cult. During the remainder of the episode, the brothers discuss Trump’s latest anti-American/Pro-Saudi stance, recent polls showing the GOP falling further and further behind, developments with the Brittney Griner detainment, an overview of Democratic/American victories and much more! New episodes of The MeidasTouch Podcast are released every Tuesday & Friday at 5am ET. If you enjoyed today’s show please be sure to rate, review and subscribe! DEALS FROM OUR SPONSOR: Grove Collaborative: https://grove.com/meidastouch (Get up to a $50 gift set for FREE with your first order) SHOP MEIDAS MERCH: https://store.meidastouch.com GET INVOLVED: https://www.fieldteam6.org/volunteer-ops 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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please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Republicans vote against a bill that would give health care to military veterans exposed to toxic burn pits. Toxic burn pits. And I say the GOP is toxic. The GOP has voted against essentially every bill that helps people or protects people's rights over the past two weeks. And frankly, that's what they've been doing all along. But it's been exposed in such an incredible way by Democrats over these past two weeks. And I'm not sure if you saw that you see this golf tournament that took place, this live Saudi Arabian backed golf tournament where individuals who criticize the Saudi Arabian kingdom were booed,

yet they were trying to promote cheers of anti-Biden. I mean, real America first, guys, America first. Exactly. And Democrats are fighting for the people then the january 6th committee has inspired democrats to fight for the people publicly and loudly in a very big way with those two things come on we'll talk about this and more on the Midas Touch podcast our guest today is Ken Harboe United States Navy vet pilot. Great to have Ken on. Ken's been making videos for the Midas Touch.

He's a Midas Touch contributor. It's going to be great to have Ken on. He's also the former president of Team Rubicon Global. I want to get his perspective as a vet of Republicans voting against giving health care. I know he was telling us

some stories offline, and I'm excited for him to tell some of these stories and share them with you, though, about the impact that this is actually having on people that he knows. And it's a horrific impact that it's having on some people. I mean, there was an individual he knew who actually committed suicide after the Republicans voted against the PACT Act. And what they do has direct consequences. You know, they think they're playing some game here and their game is destroying America. Brett, Jordy, how are you doing?

Doing I'm doing well. Yeah. You know, it's like we always kind of say on the show, like it's not about politics to me. I don't think it's about politics. These Democratic lawmakers, I think they genuinely want to help veterans and they thought this would be an easy vote. I don't quite understand the political calculation of Republicans voting against their veterans, but I think this whole thing really exposed a lot about Republicans and exposed the way

they just lie and gaslight and just straight up make things up. And it's and it's upsetting because at the end of the day, what we need to do at bare minimum is take care of our vets and take care of all Americans. And it just shows you how Republicans don't want to do that. They just want to play political games as long as they think it's going to hurt the Democrats. And I think that's just, you know, just a disgrace. Ben has this great knack for all in the longtime listeners and watchers of like saying something truly horrific than asking Brett and I how we're doing. And it's like, how do you want us to respond to that, man?

I mean, yeah, that is devastating news. It's so true because I was going to start it off on a bit of a lighter note before Ben went straight into the burn pits. And, you know, I'm going to go back and just go to that lighter note for a second. And we will dive into the burn pits bill and we'll dive into all the news of the day uh trump staffing up and trying to figure out his legal defense because he thinks charges are coming but jordy is getting married this week and i think we gotta give jordy a huge i mean jordy this is like a big week for you how you how you feeling you're looking good but even shedding pounds over

there what's going on i've been working out like a lunatic, hitting that bike every morning, just doing the crazy mycelis tendencies that we like to do. Jordy's lost like 25 pounds in like a week. I think more. It's like 45 pounds. Well, since the start of the pandemic, I've lost 40. Wow. Yeah. Since the start of the pandemic though, that's in 2020. I mean, that's- Yeah, yeah, yeah. But still not impressive to you, Ben. I'm sorry. I didn't do it all in one year. Sorry. I didn't tell it. Sorry. You did all two weeks, Ben. I mean, we're two and a half years into the pandemic.

I played the long game. I was committed to it. Slow and steady wins the race. Exactly. Got it. So, Jordy, when you gave me those metrics this morning, that was your pre-pandemic, post-pandemic weight? That yeah that was um uh may of uh 2020 today yeah well considering what are you talking about the pandemic was march oh 2020. got it but you started working out in may sure yeah once i knew that ben's trying to depose you about yeah why am i getting deposed right now? I just think that that's going to make you step on a scale to verify. Speaking about being deposed, Donald Trump's lawyers are preparing legal defenses against anticipated and expected charges by the Department of Justice, really,

since the Cassidy Hutchinson testimony. The Department of Justice isn't doing anything, Ben. Why would they be scared of criminal charges? According to a number of reports, Trump's attorneys are trying to prepare various defenses. You know, I've I've seen them because if you watch if you watch some of these clips that, you know, circulate about Fox News, that guy, Mark Levin, he basically floats all of the potential Trump defenses. They're very tight. And he'll go over what he believes the defense is. Like the other night, he basically claimed. How do you get the name Levin wrong?

Let's start there. Mark Levin? I think he calls himself the Mark Levin Show. Is it Levin? I think he goes. You could go check it out. Let us know in the comments because I don't know about that. Go. You go check it out.

But I think the show. I think he goes by Levin. Maybe I don't watch Fox News. Okay. Continue. Sorry. We'll go. I don't watch it either, but I think it's Levin.

But we'll go find that. And his name, John Smythe Bennett Smith. Okay. His name, John Smythe Bennett Smith. OK, so anyway, so his most recent statement that he made was that the Constitution doesn't really provide what the vice president's role is generally like. And that as a result, when Trump threatened the vice president, he threatened a position that no one really even knows what they're supposed to do. So who cares if you threaten? Yeah, these are yeah, these people are insane. Like whack. You think I'm joking?

Play the clip. Play the clip if you think I'm joking. Pressuring Vice President Pence. I just told you that members of Congress have objected to electors and state entire electors. Right. Number one, the vice president of the United States is the president of the Senate, who's also the vice president, he can't object. Here's the dirty little secret that you're not hearing from the legal analysts. You're not hearing from the media. You're not hearing from anybody. Now you'll hear it. We're not 100% sure what the vice president's role is. Look at the Constitution. Does it tell us? No. Look at the 12th Amendment. Is it clear? It's ambiguous. Literally, that was the argument that he said it. Yeah, he's what he said yeah you weren't like ben explain that to me break that down one more time

what's the argument i don't know what you mean okay so the argument is that the senate um under this 1870s or 1880s election act has the ability to object to the electors that are basically submitted. And we know that the vice president is the president of the Senate. So essentially, can he if he's a senator, can he also object to those electors who are coming in? And also, because the vice president doesn't have, according to this line of argumentation, which is why I'm struggling to try to explain it, because the vice president, no one really knows what their role is, despite the fact that the role is very clear in the 12th Amendment, what the vice president's role is like. Let me just pull up the 12th Amendment because it's fairly clear, not fairly

clear. It's completely clear. The president of the Senate, who's the vice president, shall in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives open all certificates and the votes shall then be counted. So Republicans argue that that's very ambiguous incredibly ambiguous but that's one of the lines of defense that they're going to be making jordy but anyway there's a number of things you know that he's hiring lawyers he's making those defenses um and he's just tweeting the most dumb shit in the world have you seen this brett the not tweeting truth truth let's get your terms right. So you see this truth. But that's why, but that's why,

because in his deep seated, weirdo marketing mind that he thinks he's a genius at, he's not, but he thinks he's a genius at people will say that, Oh, did you see what Trump truth the other day? He truth it. Like,

that's it though. That's it. You're so, you're so right about it. You. He truthed it. Like, it's so thick. That's it, though. That's it. You're so right about it. You're so right about it. We should just change the word to like, yeah, we should definitely change it. Here's a Trump lie today. That's a great call out, Jordy. So Biden tested positive again for COVID. And if you've had it, you know that that's very possible

with the with the way the testing. That's very common with Paxil, but especially I've heard of a lot of people get in those rebound cases once they once they come off it. But he has no symptoms like he for all intents and purposes. He's he's doing fine, but obviously has to maintain isolation. But what does Donald Trump say about Joe Biden's COVID? Joe Biden's second bout of COVID, sometimes referred to as the China virus, was sadly misdiagnosed by his doctors. He instead has dementia, but is happily recovering well. Joe is thinking of moving part time to one of those beautiful Wisconsin nursing homes where almost 100 percent of the residents miraculously and for the first time in history had the strength and energy to vote, even if those votes were cast illegally. Get well soon. I mean, like a like a sick, sick,

sick person on there. Honestly, if I were looking at this, then I was just like, you know, judging by everything Trump ever says, like it feels like pure projection to me. I mean, the fact that he's like accusing Joe Biden of having dementia after having covid. I mean, we know that Trump is in steep mental decline. And I wouldn't be surprised if he's hinting at his own mental decline here, if you're reading between the lines with everything that he's saying. But I mean, the guy's like out there, like at the Saudi Arabia funded tournament that he's hosting on a property where he buried his ex-wife on the back lot, on the back lot, like near like a hole for tax purposes, apparently, in order to evade paying taxes. Because according to New Jersey law, per tax experts, they say that apparently that means that he doesn't have to pay property taxes, sales taxes or any other tax on the property if it is reclassified as a cemetery.

And one plot on the land makes it a cemetery. So that's sick. Then you see like Don Jr. You see Donald. You see all them just like happy kind of running around like Don Jr. high fiving. They have very small crowds. They were selling the tickets for one dollar on StubHub because they were having trouble attracting a crowd. And this is like two weeks out from like Don Jr.'s mother dying. Could you imagine like doing that? Like if someone you love passed away, it just these people

are just so callous and so sick. And Trump is out there pretending to be president, like with the presidential seal, like he has a fake presidential seal. He puts on everything that he does. I mean, these are just like deranged people. And when it comes down to it, though, you see like. Republicans lie about everything And what Donald Trump exposed is that you could make the lies as crazy as you want. You could if the sky is blue, you could say the sky is green. And if you say it enough times, people go, yeah, the sky is green. Oh, you think it's not green? Oh, you radical libs, you radical, you rhino, you rhino.

And Trump has really exploited that to such ends that now all the Republicans are are doing the same thing. And that ties in with the burn pit bill that ties in with literally everything coming out from the right wing these days. Yeah. Did you see, though, there's one of you've said a lot there. So let's just I threw a lot on the table. I connected a lot on the table.

I connected a lot, a lot of dots. So this golf tournament is a saudi arabian uh back they fund the whole thing it's called live they're basically it's part of an influence campaign that the saudi arabian government is running here in america knowing that people like golf that they're gonna try to build out a golf league and try to curry favor after the incredible negative views that lots of people have, considering that they're killing American or killed an American journalist, Khashoggi. And so remember when all the Republicans were going after Biden for fist bumping?

I remember it, Ben, like it was two weeks ago. With the Prince of Saudi Arabia, MBH? Yeah, it was two weeks ago. Well, then just a few days later, the Trump MAGAs hold this golf tournament, this Saudi-backed golf tournament. And when there was actually, these were were our friends the good liars when they i mean they was a comedic routine that they did but they made a great point and the people there didn't know they were doing a comedic routine but when phil mickelson was getting ready to to hit you know

to tee off the good liars one of the individuals said you know you know do it for the saudi prince and got booed by yelling and making fun of the saudi prince and the connections there and shouting out the saudi prince for funding this golf tournament that's where maga boos in defense of saudi arabia hey phil give us a wave! Let's go! Yeah! Yeah! Give me a look! Yes! Thumbs up! Thank you! All right! Last hour, Phil Mickelson teed off here at the 16th hole just behind me. Here's what happened. Do it for the Saudi royal family one more time and we'll escort you out okay I'm so I'm sorry I'm so sorry

I am sorry I'm very sorry and then you kind of fast forward to a few holes later you know or later in the day everyone's chanting their anti-Biden chants because you know, or later in the day, everyone's chanting their anti Biden chants because, you know, inspired by Marjorie Taylor Greene and all the radical extremists who are at this golf tournament and they're all screaming, let's go brand in there and no issues, no booze, no like that is who they are now. Like their America first movement is not America first. The same way Trump's statement is not a truth. Everything is opposite land with them. And, you know, you can't tell me that, you know, you are hosting a Saudi funded golf tournament rooting for the Saudis, openly praising the Saudis, voting against our veterans, celebrating voting against our veterans, lying to the veterans faces. And then you have the gall to say that you are the American first party. Give me a break. And

that's not the only anti-American thing that Trump did in the past, like 24 to 48 hours. Trump also took the side of Russia in the Brittany Griner situation. President Biden stepping up, trying to work out a deal, a swap to get Brittany Griner, the WNBA athlete who's been imprisoned by Russia for quite a bit now. And we've been trying to call attention to it. I know, you know, this hasn't getting nearly, nearly enough attention that it deserves. And I think that's an appalling indictment in our media. But that's a separate story. But President Biden is working on an exchange. And I think that's an appalling indictment in our media. But that's a separate story. But President Biden is working on an exchange. And so what does Donald Trump do? Does Donald Trump root for our athletes, root for Americans? No. Donald Trump spreads Russian

propaganda about Brittany Griner, saying that basically she deserves it. Play the clip. Would you have made, by the way, the offer for Brittany Griner and Victor Bout that Russia has put forward where they'll trade this arms dealers 25 years for arms dealing all over the world for the WNBA player and also, I believe, a former Marine is being held there? She went in there, loaded up with drugs into a hostile territory where they're very vigilant about drugs. They don't like drugs. And she got caught. And now we're supposed to get her out. And she makes a lot of money, I guess. But we're supposed to get her out for a absolute killer. And one of the biggest arms dealers in the world killed many Americans, killed many people. And he's going to get a free card and we're going to get her.

She knew you don't go in there loaded up with drugs. And she admitted it. I assume she admitted it without too much force because it is what it is. And it certainly doesn't seem like a very good trade, does it? He's an absolute one of the worst in the world. And he's going to be given his freedom because a potentially spoiled person goes into russia loaded up with drugs and what what podcast was he on there he was on the clay travis podcast i think yeah i think yeah we gotta just bleep that guy's name i hate that guy well here's the thing about clay travis don't we have that audio or that video of clay travis don't we have that audio or the video of clay travis like beef like like trey clavis

the clay travis literally like most of these magas too like like carrie lake this maga who's running for arizona you know like three or four years ago she was saying like the exact opposite things that they're saying they just realized that they're so callous for power and money that they're like as long as i go all in on just like this ultra maga you know you know wackiness they're frauds they're fucking there's a base that i could basically you know pillage and and loot from and clay travis is just like that too carrie lake is just like that too and brett that that video that you played i mean the britney grinder video i mean how disgusting is that and it's all it's

all lies like she had a small amount of liquid that was in a vape pen where in our country where marijuana is he acted like she was like bringing in like huge amounts of drugs like hard drugs to russia and if you notice there was one point in what he said too he's like i'm sure they were very tough on her but you know you got to do what you got to do because his whole thing is that you should kill people who have drugs and execute them because it's a stepping stone towards his overall view of fascism, of quick trials where there is no actual. And he talks about quick trials and the way he floats it is in the context of drug dealers,

but his broader vision is no due process rights whatsoever and just super quick trials, throw people in jail. And that's what he really wants there. Oh, but just going back to this Ivana, you know, her, her, her, the, where she was buried too. It's like on the back lot, like there's, there's like, it literally just says her name on it, her date of birth, her date of death. And it's like hidden in the back. I'm like a mound of dirt. It's not even like a tombstone. There's just no there's nothing.

It's like let me also show like while we're talking about this, this one's for the people watching the podcast. So, you know, if you're listening, go our our twitter or go look it up online but i want to just show this video as we're speaking of don jr walking down remember this is the site of where his mother was just buried like a couple days ago high-fiving looking happier than he's like literally applauding and dancing on his mother's gravesite and i mean this was like a week or two ago these people are they're just so they're sick they're deeply they're deeply they're deeply sick and dancing on his mother's gravesite. And I mean, this was like a week or two ago. These people, they're just so, they're sick. They're sick.

They're deeply, they're deeply, they're deeply sick people. And that's, that's ultimately what it is. Yeah, we can't let them off too. I mean, they're disturbed, horrible people. And I think the world's waking up to it though. I really do. I think that there is, you know, as they're engaged in all of that conduct, you know, the Democrats are fighting for the people and people are taking notice. And so I just want to talk about look, look at some of the things that President Biden has done, you know, recently, you know, if the Inflation Reduction Act passes, which was introduced. Let's think about what he's done. He would have inked major wins on drug pricing, climate change, making sure that corporations pay their fair share.

He did the $1.9 trillion COVID rescue plan, the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. They did pass a bipartisan gun bill, which should be stronger. But nonetheless, it was a first step in strengthening a little bit our gun laws here when it comes to assault weapons and things like that. In the past week, the Senate's passed a fifty two billion dollar package investing in our semiconductor computer chip manufacturing industry right here in the United States. So we'd not be beholden to China and other countries across the world who produce these semiconductors. Biden has nominated and she was appointed Katonji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. Biden has nominated and has over 73 increases by the day, you know, 75 appointments to federal judges, which is so critical. I can't

even tell you how important these federal judges are. Look who Biden nominated to last week. Biden nominated one of the female lawyers who argued for the Jackson Health System in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Health, who would strongly protect a woman's right to choose. He nominated her to become on the judiciary. Lots and lots of these are like any one of these. These are big wins. These are big wins. And then the culmination of all of these things are tremendous. They scored their touchdown.

Now let people know what you've done for them. And it's not a false bravado because you've actually done the work. You've done the crunches. Now show it off to people and let them know what you did for them and get them excited about it. But Jerry, I think we've seen that in the past few weeks, especially. I think we've seen them start to rise to the occasion. And you could say it's too little, too late. But I think the timing is just right. Could they have started sooner? I didn't say too little, too late. Don't throw those words in my mouth. I wasn't saying you said that. I wasn't saying you said that. I was saying people may say, oh, too little, too late. But there are now about 99 days till election day. I think the timing is

perfect for this. I think every single day right now, they are being relentless. And remember, when you talk about messaging, messaging isn't only like, let's come up with a quirky slogan that everyone's like messaging is all about actions as well. And so when you see the Democrats day in and day out pushing these bills that are universally popular and Republicans blocking them, that is a form of messaging. And that is something that we need to run with to the polls. And it's really what it's exposing really is this idea between the Democrats being normal civil servants, politicians who want to pass legislation to solve problems versus the Republicans who have just become extremists, like just full on extremists who really like at this point, like if they wanted to destroy America, they wouldn't be doing anything

differently. They would just be behaving exactly as it is. And people are waking up and seeing them as extremists. There is a new CBS YouGov poll that shows that over 50 percent of women now say that they think Republicans would be worse for women if they got in, which is a big shift from previous polls here. And what women are saying about Republicans is that Republicans are too extreme. These people are wackos. We can't trust them. We can't trust them with our kids. We can't trust them with our, they shouldn't have any say over our bodies. We can't trust them over our communities, over the suburbs, over our schools. These people are out of their mind. And when you look at the polling in general now, Democrats are pulling 10 points ahead, 10 points ahead of Republicans with

women from a pool of likely voters when people were asked for their party choice in the upcoming congressional election. So that's a really, really big deal. It's a seismic shift. And it's something that is really important. And we got to just, you know, keep pressing these issues and show, yeah, these people are extremists. This election needs to be an indictment on Republican corruption and Republican extremism. Nowhere is that seen more in the Republican vote against our troops, against our veterans, the Democrats introduced an important bill that would increase health care access to our military veterans returning home from abroad who have been exposed to toxic burn pits. Now, let me just give some background on it, because I think I can explain this in a very kind of simple way. So in June, the Republicans and Democrats voted in favor of this bill to provide health care access. In July, the Republicans and Democrats were given the same bill to vote for. Literally nothing changed in the bill.

Well, if you actually compare it and you can do this by going to the website where the bill is displayed, you can just pull up the bill and you can look at it and say, was anything changed? Like literally the only thing that it was even edited slightly was just the name of the title because it was now just being voted on to become an official law. There was like there was a clerical error that needed to be fixed so that the wording was actually able to be become law. And there was a line about a benefit being non-taxable. That was like a very minor inconsequential thing. And I believe it was eighty four Republicans voted for

this same exact bill. So any excuses they have right now, let's be clear, are complete lies, complete fabrications. And so what their lie, though, is, is they go, well, we're upset that the funding is mandatory and not discretionary. It shouldn't be mandatory. Well, first off, in the previous version of the bill, it was mandatory. Nothing changed from the June bill you voted on to this bill now. But why would you want it to not be mandatory? Wouldn't we want our troops to have mandatory like that? It actually definitely. Yeah, it's because it's because they're thinking if if they're able to get power, that they could then divert those funds to their

projects. Right. Like, I mean, they don't want that money to go to vets. They want to be able to be like, oh, you know what, that 400 billion, guess what? It's discretionary. So let's spend it on these contractors who, you know, we owe something to. Let's spend it on whatever. But Democrats are like, no, this is this should be mandatory. It should go to our vets. One hundred percent of the money in this bill should go to our vets. The language says that in the bill, too. It says there are no there are no there's no pork. There's none of these side. There's nothing else in it except for this. And like you said, Ben, all the Republicans who voted for this back in June, it's the same exact bill.

It's the same exact bill as the one that they voted down just now. I actually think it also gets a little bit darker than that too, because Democrats don't look at it this way, but Republicans certainly do. What we were just talking about before, all of the wins that Biden, the Biden administration, Democrats have been putting up, this would be another thing. This would just be another amazing accomplishment for the Dems to get through, but really for Americans and for our troops. And Republicans are looking at it like that, like it's a basketball game of who could get

the most political points before the midterms. And so they're trying to block everything. What's weird is even in a, you don't want to give the Democrats a win. I still don't understand the political calculation here. Like, like anybody normal who's not in that 20% of crazy people, you know, voters, it looks at this and goes, yeah, they're trying to screw over our veterans. Like, like that can't be a political game.

So I just don't understand their political calculus here. But I think what this is really- That was it though. They miscalculated. That was it. They thought they were, that's why they were fist pumping. And now they're trying to cover it up. And I think what they didn't expect was having somebody who has the gravitas as Jon Stewart out there calling them out for their BS every day. And what I love Jon Stewart's doing is, oh, I know it's me, the liberal piece of shit. I'm a liberal piece of shit. Look at me. I'm Antifa. He's joking around with them, but saying, but don't's me, the liberal piece of shit. I'm a liberal piece of shit. Look at me. I'm Antifa. I'm that, you know, he's joking around with them, but saying, but don't believe me,

believe this veterans group and that veterans group and this veteran group and go to congress.gov and read the bill for yourself. Because when you do those things, guess what? Who are you going to believe? Lying Ted Cruz and his Republicans who are lying, who voted on this before? Or are you going to call the veterans groups liars? Are you going to call your own lies or yourself a liar when you read the bills yourself? But it's amazing how you see those fake talking points pushed endlessly. And it shows you how this right wing disinformation echo chamber works. And if they're willing to lie about the health of our vets, they're willing to lie about

literally everything. And they do lie about literally everything. So you can never trust anything these people say literally everything they say is and that's why they miscalculated it brett which to to your and jordy's point like they thought they'd get away with it they'd flip the script they'd say that democrats were playing some game and they would do the normal kind of republican two-step and blame it on the democrats somehow like that's what they thought they were going to do but it almost reminds me of like when And they would do the normal kind of Republican two step and blame it on the Democrats somehow. That's what they thought they were going to do. But it almost reminds me of like when, you know, when Putin invaded Ukraine and then he talked about denazification and that these were Nazis and like Zelensky. Same thing. Same thing.

And like Zelensky is a Jew. And so you kind of but you kind of looked at it there, too. And you were like. What are you what? Like what? And it's actually the it it almost had the same effect when Republicans here were voting against this, against our veterans to, you know, to kill them and to basically they start making up all of these things and, you know, speaking so fast like they do. It's a gimmick. It's a Democrat gimmick. Gimmick, gimmick, this gimmick, gimmick. And you're like, well, I would have voted for it. But the Democrats, it's like, wait a minute, you motherfucker, you're lying to me, you know. And it was so clear to everybody to see that the Republicans were liars and then they fist

bumped and they celebrated. But it's Democrats are creating those opportunities, though, Brett. And it's a combination of, you know, introducing these bills every day, fighting for the people and just being loud about it. That's your point, Brett. Messaging doesn't mean as we see it. Oh, you got to have like a jingle like call one eight hundred Democrats and you will get your health care back. Like that's not good. Jingle Ben over here. Jingle Ben. Thank you.

But that's not necessary. That's not what it really is. Authentically going out there and fighting for the people every day and being loud about that and calling these traitor fascists out like they need to. And someone who's been calling these traitor fascists out right here on the Midas Media Network is Ken Harbaugh, former United States Navy pilot, former president of Team Rubicon, global host of Burn the Boats podcast. You can catch him on Twitter at Team Harbaugh, H-A-R-B-A-U-G-S. Let's welcome Ken Harbaugh to the podcast. Ken, welcome to the podcast. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me, guys.

And of course, everyone in the Midas Mighty has seen Ken on the Midas Touch YouTube videos. But let's get to know you a little bit better, Ken, before I start asking you some questions about what is going on today. Ken, if you can just give some of our listeners and viewers a bit of your background in the military, helping vets thereafter, and kind of catch us up to the current in 20 seconds or less. Sure. Well, 20 seconds. Some of it's behind me. I was a Navy pilot, combat recon, got out, went back to school when I started a family. And honestly, probably the toughest professional decision of my life because so many better men than me and women stayed in. I got out in the middle of the height of the Iraq War, but I had a little girl at home, went back to school, got a law degree.

And that ended up, you know, changing my life. I went on to lead some veterans organizations, founded one and served as president of Team Rubicon Global. And I really do believe that veterans are one of our greatest assets as a country, if we can provide them the opportunities to refocus and redirect that passion for service into into serving their communities once again. And Ken, so obviously last week, particularly with Republicans voting against a bill to expand access to health care for veterans who have been exposed to toxic burn pits, bravely fighting for our country. We've heard a lot of reactions, a lot of responses to this. You did a video calling them cowards, but many ways, you know, cowards doesn't even do it full justice, huh? No, it

doesn't begin to describe what we saw on the Senate floor last week, because the same Republicans who voted to deny these veterans their their benefits for toxic exposure overseas, veterans who did what we asked them to, right? Who bore that burden for the rest of us. And the contract is pretty simple. We ask you to go do that. We're going to take care of you when you come back. That contract was broken by a handful of Republicans last week on the Senate floor, the same Republicans who voted for that legislation a month earlier, which begs the question, why did they flip? What the hell were they thinking? It was politics, pure and simple. There was no issue of principle whatsoever. It was the worst kind of zero-sum

politics that makes people hate Washington. And Republicans are the main culprit. And who's paying the price? Veterans. Yeah. And playing politics with the lives of veterans. Right. The Republicans were upset that the chips plus bill to invest in the semiconductor industry passed, which they thought was a tradeoff with Manchin, who is not going to support the Infrastructure Reduction Act and invest money into things like our health care system and help everyday Americans. The horror, the horror. So to retaliate also against all of that, we're going to vote against the vets on the same bill

that we previously passed in June. And then we're going to make up in total Republican gaslighting fashion this idea that isn't true, that some gimmick was added in the last minute, which did not take place. It kind of exposes the whole Republican con. And then that fist bump at the end when the Republicans fist bumped and celebrated that veterans would die because of their callous actions. Doesn't that just sum up who these Republicans have become full ultra MAGA? It was a tantrum. It was like a toddler's tantrum. They were upset that the Democrats were on a roll legislatively and they wanted to slow them down. And then when they got caught, when they got called out, they lied about it. They flat out lied about it. And we

could get into the details about this bucket of money or that bucket of money. But I guess for most listeners, I would just say, who are you going to trust? Are you going to trust Ted Cruz and his buddies who have been lying to you again and again and again? Or are you going to trust people like Jon Stewart, who's had our backs as veterans all along? The Republicans are lying and veterans are dying. Over the weekend, I talked to Susan Zier, who is Heath Robinson's mother-in-law. Heath is the namesake of this bill, the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Act. And she was with her granddaughter, Brielle,

Heath's daughter. And the price that these families have paid for this Republican tantrum is, I mean, it's beyond describing. I heard from Susan and then I heard it from someone else that a fellow vet who has been waiting and waiting and waiting for the government to do its job and to hold up its end of the bargain, the last straw was this vote against the PACT Act, and he took his life. And we just have no idea how many more we've lost out of that kind of frustration. Can you talk, Ken, to are you seeing in these conversations with vets who may have been independents or undecided that this issue is having a real kind of different impact on their way of thinking? Are you seeing any of that? vet, it's not going to make him a diehard Democrat, but it's going to expose who the Republicans really are, that they don't actually care about vets when they vote for war, right? They care about the war machine, as Jon Stewart said, but they don't care about those who are

paying the price. They just use them to score political points and then dance on their graves. You know, I mentioned before that the Republican Party has gone full ultra MAGA, a viral video you did about a month or so ago. Really, does any one kind of represent that as much as Eric Greitens? You have an experienced former governor of Missouri short, a very short term before he was kicked out for a number of horrific accusations and conduct and findings in a bipartisan way there. He's kind of resurfaced running for Senate. I'm out is him holding a assault weapon, you know, running with people dressed in military attire and saying they're going rhino hunting, but not even like trying to like a metaphorical rhino hunt and trying to find a rhino out there, like actually hunting humans and knocking down houses with the imagery of trying to like kill his political opponents in his parties. And you did a video about him and how he's lost his way. Can you talk about how you know him and and what's going on there? Yeah, a little bit. I will. I will say that I think a lot of us have

had this experience, someone we we care about, someone we love who has been sucked into this vortex, this MAGA vortex. And Eric and I have known each other since our first day in college together. I went to his weddings. We co-founded an organization together. And there is, try to think of an example, a metaphor for it. MAGA is like this black hole, right? And it sucks you into it. And then you become part of that gravitational pull, pulling other people in. And I think that's what's happened to so many people. And in this case, someone I really cared about, cared about him enough to reach out privately on a number of occasions. But when this ad came out, his ad threatening to kill rhinos, Republicans in name only, my first thought was my mom, who is a lifelong Republican and was one of Eric's staunchest

supporters in the beginning. And then when the scandals hit, she reached out to him and talked to him about forgiveness and redemption. And he puts out a video that's basically a hit on my mom and on people like her, rhinos, who are now targets of people like Eric Reitens because they don't believe that the election was stolen. And that, for me, was was the last straw. And Ken, so you mentioned this ultra MAGA MAGA, they call themselves the Orange Mafia. It's some weird, disturbing stuff going on. But that vortex that that's taking place, it does seem like over the past two weeks, inspired by, frankly, I think the work of the January 6th committee has helped democracy get its mojo

back in a way, just seeing how in a modern environment you have to just fighting for the people sometimes isn't enough. You have to show that you're fighting for the people and you have to do it in clips and you have to tell a story about it and let people really know that you care for them. And what are your thoughts about that? And what are your thoughts about pushing people out of that vortex or showing people, look, look, Democrats are the actual the ones fighting for health care for for vets. You know, Republicans may say they're back the blue, but they're the first ones to throw the police under the bus on January 6th. Like, open your eyes.

Well, we have to tell the story and we have to keep telling it and keep telling it. And it best is told by by people close to you. I mean, it's those dinner table conversations with your cranky uncle that are actually going to move people. Right. And we can provide some of the fuel for that. But we have to motivate people to talk to those who will listen to them, who who care about them. And my fear is that we get the occasional win because you know what's going to happen this week. Let's go back to this burn pits legislation. The Republicans got busted. They're going to come back to the table. They're going to vote for it because they did a month ago, right? And then they're going to try to leave it behind. We can't let them off the hook. We have to remind

people between now and November 22, now and November 24, every single election cycle, that this is a battle between a party that believes in democracy, that believes in actual freedom, the freedom to choose, the freedom to have basic civil rights, and a party that has gone full fascist. That's what's at stake. And I know people get tired of hearing this is the most important election of our lifetime. But when the country is headed towards a cliff, the closer you get, the more existential the crisis becomes. And every single election is the most important election of our lifetime until we repudiate once and for all the extremism of the Republican Party.

Let's expand on that for just a second. What do you see as the stakes for the 2022 elections coming up? I think the 2022 elections will be a harbinger of 24. And if Donald Trump returns in 2024, it could well be the last election of our of our lifetimes. There was an amazing article that just came out in The Atlantic where he's talking about his playbook. And I think we have to start taking seriously what the extremists say. When they say they want a civil war, we can't laugh it off, right? When Donald Trump says he's going to deploy every instrument of the federal government to punish his enemies, we can't laugh it off. I mean, it is tempting to look at their clownishness and pretend it's a joke.

But as somebody once said, a clown with a flamethrower still has a flamethrower, and they are trying to burn the country down. And we saw it happen when people laughed it off in 2016. It didn't work out so well. And now a word from one of our Midas Touch podcast sponsors. Hey, did you know that only 9% of plastic actually gets recycled?

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with demographics or geography, who they are, where they live, than whether or not they consume right-wing media. That is the most important determinant of whether you're sucked into this vortex. Are you a regular Fox News watcher? Are you a regular subscriber to these far right-wing online news outlets? That's how you get sucked in. And it makes perfect sense if you look at history, if you look at the history of autocratic movements from the beginning of time, if you pump enough misinformation into people's heads, it's like a diet. It changes who you are. It changes how you look, how you think. And we have to battle that disinformation. We have to challenge it wherever it crops up.

And and it's it's efforts like this that are part of the answer. And I think one of the other pieces of disinformation that I keep hearing from Republicans is that people aren't signing up for the military because the military is too woke. We have a woke military. And that's why now I have no military background myself, but looking at it from the outside, when I see the way that they're treating soldiers when they come home, to me, I go, oh, well, maybe that's why. Maybe it's because they see that we're not giving back when they give, in many cases, their lives for us. I'd like to get your perspective on this whole wokeness debate and what they're talking about. It's nuts. As a military, our diversity is our greatest strength.

Not long ago, Ted Cruz actually put out a video just before the Ukraine invasion comparing a Russian recruiting video to an American recruiting video. And in the American recruiting video, they were talking about how we accept people from all backgrounds. We'll give you training. We'll give you a sense of purpose. We'll give you a community. We'll make you proud to wear that uniform. And the Russian video, of course, was a bunch of dudes jumping out of airplanes, screaming. And it was just kind of pure testosterone. And Ted Cruz says something like, gosh, I wonder which military would win in a fight. And of course, the Ukraine invasion shows you that we've got the answer, right? You have to have a military that thinks critically, a military that is willing to challenge convention

if it's going to adapt to warfare in the 21st century. And you look at the performance of the old way of doing it, the Russian military in Ukraine, versus the new way of doing it, the assistance we've been giving to the Ukrainians, their reforms, the weapons that they're using with our help. And it's, I mean, there's no doubt in my mind that we've got it right. And Ken, I want to go back to what we were talking about just briefly about Fox News and really that being a central vortex of sucking people in. So we've had the honor of speaking to a handful of veterans on this show previously, and they've told us that at these naval bases,

at the army bases, Fox News is beamed into where our troops are stationed. So one, do you know that to be true? Have you experienced that? Or do you know that if that's actually- I know that to be true for a fact. It's not always Fox News, but oftentimes the TV and the chow hall is beaming Fox News. In other words, it's propagandizing in a government space and arguably a really critical government space, a space full of impressionable young soldiers, sailors, airmen, and it's got to stop. To that, what would you recommend? How can we combat that to make sure that our troops are getting the most real and truthful information as possible. Well, I don't think the DOD is going to listen to me on this. I wish they would, but we need leadership, real leadership out of the Pentagon to say, you know,

disinformation is disinformation. I don't care how popular it is, and it's going to stop. But I think we can do more than that. Believe it or not, when I raised my right hand and swore an oath to the Constitution, I was never asked to study it. And I went through the officer track, right? I mean, granted, it was officer candidate school. It was a compressed program. But they never asked me to study a document that I pledged my life to defend. It is even less so the case with your average enlisted recruit who goes through boot camp, raises his or her right hand, pledges to support and defend the constitution against all enemies. It's a document they've never had to read. We have to have a civics education in boot camp with a

constitutional literacy component. I think that is table stakes for asking young men and women to pledge their lives to defend that document. And then Ken, we were talking earlier, I have Ohio roots. I'm currently living in PA. We got tons of big Senate races coming up this midterm cycle. Now, not to just focus on those two, but knowing our connection there, how do you think Democrats are shaped up for those two specific races, PA and Ohio and enlarge the midterms for Democrats. Look, I got a hedge because optimism kills in this business, right? Sherrod Brown, our favorite senator from Ohio right now, Tim's going to join him soon, likes to say you're either running scared or running unopposed.

There's only one way to run as a candidate. You either fight like hell, or you're not up against any competition. So we have to keep that in mind for these close races. Tim Ryan is doing great in Ohio. John Fetterman looks to be doing great in Pennsylvania, but we cannot let our guard down. We have to go into November, into those polling places, thinking that it's going to rest on a knife's edge, thinking that we're going to lose. We have to run scared and get everybody out like the last vote is going to tip us over the edge. As my basketball coach used to say, play like you're 10 points down. Yep. Well, Ken Harbaugh, thank you so much for joining us

on the podcast. We hope you do come back soon. We appreciate all the videos that you've been working with us on. They've been really great and been making a big impact. And we appreciate that as well. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Ben. Jordy, Brett, been great being on. We will be right back after these messages. There are very few things that you can be certain of in life, but you can always be sure the sun will rise each morning. You can bet your bottom dollar that you'll always need air to breathe and water to drink. And, of course, you can rest assured that with Public Mobile's 5G subscription phone plans, you'll pay the same thing every month. With all of the mysteries that life has to offer,

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He's amazing. He's amazing. I know I said this after a lot of our guests, but like, don't we have such like patriotic, normal, hardworking, compassionate people on our side? Like I, that's what I'm always amazed for. Like look at any of our interviews and then put it up against like an interview on one of these right wing crazy podcasts and just see the difference in tone, see the difference about the things that we are speaking about, about the issues that we care about. And I, you know, I think part of it might be that we, you know, all think part of it might be that we, you know, all of us here came from outside of politics. So we're not kind of polluted with

that kind of political nature of thinking about things. But that being said, like, I really right now, I'm just so proud of what the Democratic Party is doing, what President Biden is doing, because I we need leaders with compassion. We need leaders who are in it for the right reasons. And when we look at the right wing right now, it's a bunch of radical extremists who are trying to take away all of your freedoms and we can't let them take power. And the good news is the momentum is in our favor, but we need all of you to stay involved, to get involved and to do everything and understand that in these last 99 days, every single day counts. Every single day matters and your voice matters. So speak up, speak loudly,

never be afraid, never be silenced by the people on the right who try to make all this noise. Yeah. We got to really smother these radical fascists with our momentum, the momentum that we're building right now. It's kind of like when you go out and you take that lead, like don't fall off in the fourth quarter. Don't fall off in third quarter. You got to expand on that lead each and every quarter. And that's what we really want to do here at the Midas Touch. And, you know, we always make the ask at the end of these podcasts for you to get involved as well. Jordy, tell people where they can get involved at. Okay, so what you have to do is you have to go to fieldteam6.org. And

what they do is they have an incredible list of tons of different activities and ways that you can get involved, no matter your skill set, no matter your previous experience in the political space. Look, like we said, we were political outsiders and it's just been a dream working with Field Team 6. So go to fieldteam6.org, check out how you can get out there and really help out the cause. And let me give you some examples of like some of our Midas Picks of the Week this week for volunteer efforts. We got in-person voter registration drive this Wednesday on the ground in Irvine, California. If you're in California, get involved registering Democratic voters. We got voter registration training. You could do this over Zoom every Saturday from 11 to 12 Pacific time. You could do voter registration

training. We have phone banking. We have texting. We have weekend postcarding. So no matter where you are in this country, you could get involved. We are providing you with the way. So go to field team six. That's the number six dot org to check them out. That's such a great point, Brett. And also just spreading the pro-democracy message is so freaking important. You wouldn't even believe how helpful it's been and how helpful it will be if you just let people know about this podcast. Let people know about the Midas Touch YouTube channel. Subscribe right now if you haven't yet. Subscribe to the Midas Touch podcast. If you're an audio listener, go to YouTube. If you're a YouTube listener, go to audio. It really helps. Tell a friend, tell three friends. Any way you

could help spread the message, we're here. We're going to continue to fight alongside with you. You know, it's such a good point, Jordy, because I think one of the most underrated aspects of politics is the idea of community and the idea of other people agreeing with you and having other people to talk to and bounce ideas off of. And I think if you live in an area where you're looking around and everybody has, you know, as ultra MAGA or something, I think you get a little scared by by the world. But you gain a lot of confidence knowing that there are other people there that think like you and that are in this pro-democracy fight. So if you're out there spreading this message, showing that it's actually cool to be pro-democracy, showing that it's actually cool to get involved and to text and stuff, guess what? You're going to recruit a whole bunch of people.

Your effect might be exponential. You might tell one friend. They might tell two friends. Those two friends might tell five friends. Next thing you know, because of you, you lit a spark that ignited a fire, a blaze across the country of people volunteering and helping and saving our democracy. So never think that your voice is too small or too quiet. You got to speak up, be loud because you are the change. 99 days. Let's go. Let's make it happen. Let's win. Blue wave, baby. Let's go.

I love that energy, Brett. Let's keep it going. And Jordy, take us out. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.