The MeidasTouch Podcast - Trump’s DESPERATE announcement, Pelosi REVEALS future plans, Democratic stars SOAR (TN State Rep. Justin Jones)

Episode Date: November 18, 2022

On today’s episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, we sit down with newly elected Tennessee State Representative Justin Jones! Jones’s journey is without a doubt one of the most uplifting stories of this cycle! Rep. Jones went from being arrested over 14 times (all charges dropped) for making good trouble, organizing protests for racial justice and police accountability during a 62-day sit-in outside the state capitol, to now becoming the the youngest lawmaker in the Tennessee State Capitol, representing Tennessee’s 51st District. During the show, we also discuss Nancy Pelosi’s historic announcement regarding her future leadership plans, GOP leadership setting the stage for wasteful investigations into Hunter Biden, Donald Trump’s rambling barely coherent presidential announcement and MUCH more. If you enjoyed today’s show please be sure to rate, review and subscribe! New episodes of The MeidasTouch Podcast release every Tuesday and Friday. DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS: Aspiration: Open an Aspiration account or get your debit card at https://Aspiration.com/TREE AG1 by Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/meidas 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 American Psyop: https://pod.link/1652143101 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announces she will not be seeking re-election to Democratic House leadership and leader Steny Hoyer does the same. Democrats, though, have some new, incredible, pro-democracy, pro-normal leadership ready to take the baton. And compare this to the Republican mess we're seeing today. And do we still call them MAGA Republicans? Is that a thing? Or is it QAnon Republicans or Marjorie Taylor Greene Republicans? I don't know, brothers, you'll have

to tell me. But before even assuming control of the House, Republicans are in complete disarray. It appears that Marjorie Taylor Greene will be the most prominent voice for Republicans. And the ability of Kevin McCarthy to become Speaker, which is the thing he wants more than anything in life itself, seems to be in doubt. And it seems like it will just be an endless, dysfunctional, weirdness, echo chamber, conspiracy theory galore. And Americans are going to get to see it. They are going to be exposed. And we also don't know the results yet of the Lauren Boebert congressional race against Democrat Adam Frisch. After cured ballots, Boebert leads by only 557 votes.

And the race looks like it's headed for a recount. And we got some legal updates. oral argument for November 22nd on the Department of Justice's expedited appeal in that case involving Trump stealing government records and Judge Eileen Cannon, who Trump appointed improperly asserting equitable jurisdiction. Judge Cannon, I've predicted, is about to get removed from that case. The 11th Circuit's going to overrule equitable jurisdiction. Mark Meadows also, he gives notice that he's just going to go appeal directly to the South Carolina Supreme Court. He's going to avoid the intermediate appeals court to try to block his testimony before the Fulton County special grand jury. These people are just the biggest cowards in the world. Justice files an appeal to that horrible order by the Trump judge in Texas who ordered that the student debt cancellation program would be blocked and stated it was unconstitutional.

And in the Department of Justice's brief, they signaled that they would also be appealing the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals where there were two Trump judges and one George W. Bush judge, which blocked the student debt cancellation program in a horrible opinion that just completely lacked merit. They didn't even analyze the standard for an injunction. It was so strange. And our guest tonight is the Democratic superstar, the newly elected 27-year-old Democratic state representative from Tennessee's 52nd Congressional District, whose inspiring story from being a grassroots activist who was wrongfully arrested protesting injustices at the Tennessee State Capitol. Now he is a state representative inside the Capitol. This story will leave you motivated.

We are excited to welcome Representative Justin Jones as our guest today. This is the Midas Touch podcast. I'm Ben Mycelis, joined by Brett and Jordy Mycelis. And Brett, I didn't really want to talk about this, but there's some breaking news about Twitter and Elon Musk. And I said, I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to talk about it. But come on, Brett, you got to give us the most breaking news as we're recording this. Well, midterms are almost over. So I think we could start to dig into this a little bit. But today has some real kind of end of the world vibes to it in a lot of aspects. I don't know if you guys are picking up on this. And it feels like everybody right now is just kind of

tweeting through it. But will we be able to tweet through it for much longer? That is the question. After seeing the latest news about Elon Musk and Twitter and the chaos that's going on at Twitter, as many of you know, Elon Musk gave his employees an ultimatum, which said, basically, I forget the exact terminology he used in the email, but he said, you're going to be hardcore. He said, if you're going to be committed to be hardcore in this company and you're ready to work extra hours nonstop and be hardcore for our company, then you're going to let me know tomorrow by 5 p.m. You could either check the box, yes, I'm in, or you could say, no, I am not, and you could get three months severance and be gone. And a lot of employees seem to have called his bluff. Apparently last I heard about 75% of the people who run a video conference with Elon Musk quit on the spot with this ultimatum said, okay, we'll take the severance. And now we are

seeing reports that Twitter just alerted employees that effective immediately, all office buildings are temporarily closed and badge access is suspended. At the time of this original tweet, no details were given as to why. Before I read the rest of the story that has been updated throughout the night, which is that just bonkers right there in and of itself. If you remember, Elon's big thing also was that remote work was going to be no more, that if you were able to, you had to come into the office. And so now he is saying the office is locked down. You can't come into the office. No more office. This is the rest of the tweet, the rest of the story. We're hearing this is

because Elon Musk and his team are terrified employees are going to sabotage the company. Also, they're still trying to figure out which Twitter workers they need to cut access for. This reporter, Zoe Schiffer, says offices will reopen on November 21st. In the meantime, please continue to comply with company policy by refraining from discussing confidential company information on social media with the press or elsewhere. So things are just going fine. One another report from a organization that studies labor relations. This group team blind says that I cannot confirm if this is true or not, but this is the reporting that we are seeing that there are only 238 people left at Twitter HQ, or as they refer to it as Bert at HQ. Their Twitter is down to 238 employees after the purge. Remember, they had, I think, around 7,500 employees when Elon took over. So what's going on?

What do you guys think? What the heck is going on? Well, all I want to say is this. If you follow us on Twitter, but you're not yet subscribed to the YouTube channel, make sure you hit that subscribe button right now, because I just have a feeling that y'all are going to go to your birdie app one day very soon to try and, you know, and it's just not going to work. This is the, and Ben, you know, this, this is the fire fest of online apps. And it's, it's honestly, it's actually very sad. There's a lot of, a lot of people whose lives are ruined by this, ruined by this lunatic who decided to, I don't know, just force his will on so many people with just other disregard for everything. I can't stand this guy, this Elon Musk.

Yeah, I mean, it was the whole thing. 54, 20, I'm buying this for $44 billion. I mean, one of the most absurd and insane things. And also the fact that he seems to be spending his day commenting on all the right-wing extremists, all of those weird accounts. He's just like, I'll look into that. What is Cat Turd saying today? And what is this right-wing influencer who spreads ridiculous conspiracies saying today. And like, what is this right wing influencer who spreads ridiculous conspiracies saying today? Oh, I will look into that. I will like that. It's just a very, very, very weird thing. And meanwhile, also the Senate, you know, they're under a consent decree from the FTC.

And the Senate said, we need to investigate this, you know, this company right now, because they are violating every aspect of the consent decree. I think that Elon Musk's lawyer had reached out to Twitter employees and said that you will not be criminally prosecuted if you violate the consent decree. You can't do that. There's a case called Upjohn also. You don't represent the employees, number one. And number two, you can't make that representation as corporate counsel. So just completely in disarray. And it's very reminiscent, frankly, of the – do we still call them MAGA Republicans?

Should we call them Marjorie Taylor Greene Republicans because they're letting Marjorie – I like that segue. I said space laser Republicans when you were doing the intro, but I was on mute. I said like four or five things while you were doing the intro and i was wondering why you weren't acknowledging them i just thought you were ignoring me but i was actually on mute uh so you're silenced yourself let's be one one number one jordy space lasers is actually all i remember at this moment of time but i'm sure the rest will come back to me so we can confirm that jordy had at least are we done with the twitter stuff because there's yeah let's move on let's talk about Brett's Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

She announced today on the House floor. She will not be- The fact that I'm Speaker of the House. No, no. I was saying Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. I was saying Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. Oh, I thought you said- I was still on MTGs.

I'm sorry. No, no, no. I know that's right. No. I was saying Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi will not be seeking re-election for Democratic leadership, but she will remain a member of the House, Nancy Pelosi will not be seeking re-election for Democratic leadership, but she will remain a member of the House. It was an emotional and historic speech on the House floor Thursday afternoon. And she and also Steny Hoyer announced, Steny Hoyer announced he's the majority

leader. He will not be running. And let's play the video of Nancy Pelosi from today, making this heartfelt, sad, but very important and historic announcement. This I will continue to do as a member of the House, speaking for the people of San Francisco, serving the great state of California and defending our Constitution. And with great confidence in our caucus, I will not seek reelection to Democratic leadership in the next Congress. For me, the hours come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus that I so deeply respect. And I'm grateful that so many are ready and willing to shoulder this awesome responsibility. And Speaker Pelosi also talked about a lot of her accomplishments. She talked

about in the Obama administration, the Affordable Care Act. She talked about accomplishments with the Bush administration. She talked about all the accomplishments with the Biden administration. And she said that she really enjoyed working with the three presidents who she... Somebody was missing though, I believe. Play the clip. It's been my privilege to play a part in forging extraordinary progress for the American people. I have enjoyed

working with three presidents achieving historic investments in clean energy with President George Bush. Transformative healthcare reform Bush, transformative health care reform with President Barack Obama, and forging the future from infrastructure to health care to climate action with President Joe Biden. I will always have that indelible image of when Trump was speaking in the State of the, and she took the speech and... That was really loud. Sounded like a fake tearing noise. It sounded like you implemented... For those only listening, Ben just did an excellent recap

of Pelosi ripping up the sheet of paper. Ben, that was incredible. With an actual tear. Maybe I should be a sound real care. Maybe. The voiceover didn't work for you, but that worked. Brett, and she had a historic tenure, right? I mean, major accomplishments. When she ascended to the minority leader role in 2003, Pelosi, a mother of five, became the first woman to lead

a major party in Congress. She made history again in 2007 when she became the first female House speaker. And she's been able to hold the Democratic Caucus together and get through important, really historic legislation. What did you say? I would say so for sure. And, you know, always handled herself with just, you know, she's the epitome of class, the epitome of grace. She's somebody who really knows how government works and how to bring coalitions together. And there really are very few people, if anyone else, like her out there. I mean, her not being there and she's still going to be in the House. She's just not going to be in a leadership role anymore. She's passing the torch to the younger

generations, which is also such a great leadership move right there for her to say, you know what, it's time. But the epitome of class and just runs so counter to everything we see from the Republicans. I mean, she's somebody who, when she was House Speaker, committed herself to trying to deliver for the American people and say what you want about her. I know there are certainly people who have tons of different feelings about her, but when she was in Congress, she was focused on how do we pass legislation to help the American people and not like this circus, this absolute circus that you were already seeing with the Republican Party and that we've seen with the Republican Party in the past. I mean, it's night

and day. And I think it's very fitting that I believe I've heard Kevin McCarthy did not even show up for her address today. She did not even show up during that speech. Just the scum of the earth, Kevin McCarthy, just a really despicable, despicable human being. But Pelosi, such grace, such a contrast to just the hate and the just disgusting nature of this Republican party that we're seeing. And majority leader Steny Hoyer gave his strong endorsement of Hakeem Jeffries for Democratic leader. And Hakeem Jeffries was likely to become the minority leader. Catherine Clark, the minority whip. Pete Aguilar as caucus chair, with Jim Clyburn staying on as assistant Dem leader. That's from a report by Yugo Lowell.

So a great transition, right? A very calm, orderly transition. It looks like that that's what's going to take place. And we compare that, though, to what's going on in the MTG Republican side of things. And look, you got Kevin McCarthy, who, you know, would just spend all of his days and nights at Mar-a-Lago kissing Trump's ass, like literally that's what he would do. He basically sold his soul to get this speakership. This was all he's cared about. Country be damned. There was an internal conference meeting to elect a leader

of the Republican Party. McCarthy won that. He was challenged by Andy Biggs. I mean, you got Andy Biggs versus McCarthy. I mean, both not anywhere near a scintilla of team normal, very strange. But McCarthy won that by a margin of 188 to 31 in the internal conference. But that's not enough, right, to become the Speaker of the House. He needs a majority. And he's well short of a majority. And Brett's just putting up right now a statement from Manu Raju, who says, I think it's very clear Kevin McCarthy does not have close to 218 votes. And that's quoting Representative Bob Good, a Republican representative. Representative Andy Biggs predicted some kind of consensus candidate will emerge and asked about chances that McCarthy will become the speaker. Biggs said flatly,

he doesn't have the votes. Real Hamilton vibes right now. You don't have the votes. You don't have the votes. You're going to need vibes right now you don't have the votes you don't have the votes you're gonna need congressional approval because you don't have the vote you know the song i'm talking about you gotta know hamilton folks um no i mean kevin mccarthy's in a weird place kevin mccarthy has dedicated like his entire life he he sleeps and dreams about being speaker of the house it's no one wants it more than this guy And he is so evil and so craven and has done everything to achieve this position. And he's as close as he's ever gotten. And the Republicans who he has just allowed to take over the party are now going not so fast, Kevin, not so fast.

But he thinks that his big ticket to getting that speakership role, his big ticket to being in the Speaker of the House is to give Marjorie Taylor Greene the most extreme member of the Republican Party power. And so now you have this weird dynamic where you have basically most of the crazes of the Republican Party saying, uh-uh, Kevin, we're not voting for you. But then you have Marjorie Taylor Greene, of all people, going, I support Kevin because Kevin offered me some seats on committees because Kevin offered me some power. It is just so typical Republican politics. And they hit the ground running today with all their BS. They started off with all their campaigning.

They spoke about inflation and they spoke about crime and they spoke about the border. They spoke about all these various issues. They had those whole commitment to America ceremonies where they laid out their plans, and Kevin McCarthy spoke in his deep listening voice and said, listen, I hear you. I know that you are going through tough, high prices. I understand. That's why we as Republicans, that's why we're going to help you, where we feel you. And then they get into power. They're not even in power yet. But day one of having the majority, what do these people do? It becomes Hunter Biden, Hunter Biden. We're going after Dr. Fauci. It's everything that we have warned about for the past few months as to what

they're going to do. It's exactly what they are doing. And I hope the American people see through this and I think they will. But at the same time, I am sad and I am angry that for the next two years, we're going to have to deal with these people doing these bullshit investigations, wasting taxpayer money to look into Hunter Biden, to harass Dr. Fauci, to harass Nancy Pelosi, all for their own political games rather than actually dedicate their time and energy to do what the Democrats did when the Democrats were in charge, which is actually governing, being an actual governing majority that is actually trying to pass bills to help the American people. None of this is going to help the American people. It is going to waste

a lot of time and a lot of money. And that I'm pretty upset about. I'm not going to- Yeah. I mean, that's what they're going to focus on, right, Jordy? They're going to focus on Hunter Biden, drag queens, CRT, book burning, Disney World. And it's like, that's not what Americans are focused on right now. Americans are focused on healthcare, education, infrastructure, true freedoms, the freedom of a woman to control her own body. That's what Americans are thinking about, to love who they want to love and marry. It's just so amazing. And hey, they gerrymandered their way into this position very much so, if not for bad gerrymandering maps. The Democrats actually would have won the House if not for

bad gerrymandering maps. But it's just so amazing that there are American people out there who fall for this con every single time. It's like we live in this infinite loop of stupidity where the Republicans come in based off lies, based off saying shit and obstructing and lying and gaslighting. And then at the very end, they start trying to appeal to people's fears about crime and inflation and prices and act like they understand people's kitchen table issues. Then they get into power. And what do they do? They end up going full crazy. Like last time it was Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi, which wasted millions of dollars, ended up turning up absolutely nothing.

All their investigations happen like this. This time we're doing Hunter Biden. We're doing Fauci. We're doing January 6th, but to harass Nancy Pelosi for her role in January 6th, as they say, this is the path that they are going down right now. And we can show you the clips. I'm not making this stuff up. We could show you the clip shortly. And then it's going to be two years of that. And then people are going to be like, ah, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to put these people in power. You'll see a big shift

back to the Democrats in 2024. And then the first year that Democrats have power, people are going to be like, well, why isn't everything done yet? Why don't we pass all the policies? Why don't you fix everything yet? Well, you just gave the arsonists power to burn the place down for another two years. We're trying to fix it, people. And then it's just the same cycle. It's just, it's ping pong. It's stupid ping pong. It's stupid ping pong. It's so funny. It's definitely stupid ping pong, but let me just say this, and I know it's not maybe the popular opinion of it all, but if there is a silver lining, and you guys always

know I'm the one that looks for the silver linings in all these, let Marjorie speak. Give her the mic. Because what we saw in these last elections of the midterms overwhelmingly the american people reject this weird ultra maga cultish behavior and so if that's being seen and played out on a constant daily hourly minutely basis i mean that's just that's just gonna fire up the base that the pro-democracy unapologetically pro-democracy, pro-normal folks to get out there and be like, you know what? These people actually aren't the ones who I want leading anymore. I want sane, competent, unapologetically pro-democracy folks at the mic, not Marjorie Taylor Greene's. I cannot agree more with you, Jordy. And that's why, as I said earlier, you know what they say, never interrupt your enemy

when they are making a mistake. And currently the Republican Party is making a huge mistake. But what we need to ensure is that this is a fatal mistake that costs them their majority, their very slim majority in a couple of years. And really, I want to destroy this party. I really, really, really do. I think they have no ability to govern. I think there are people who have voted for Republicans in the past who no longer do. I honestly think they're all on the Democratic side at this point, and then more by the day are coming. And as they see all this stuff, they're going to see more of this mass exodus, as we have spoken about on our show, of independence of Republicans to the Democratic Party. And it's sad. I don't want a single party

system here, but the Republicans have completely abdicated their ability to govern, their desire to govern. It is all just political games and political nonsense and conspiracy theories, and it's enough with them. It's enough with them. And I will dedicate every second of these next two years to making sure that they get out of power. You said don't interrupt your opposition when they are speaking. Let's play the clip of representative Republican representative James Comer today, who was begging to be asked questions about Hunter Biden. Like that was his thing.

It's like, but can we talk about Hunter Biden? That's just so pathetic. Play this clip. The last question is, what are the grounds? If we can keep it about Hunter Biden, this is kind of a big deal, we think. If we can keep it about Hunter Biden, that would be great. I've never seen a politician actually force the media to ask him a specific question. No, ask me about this. I want to talk about it.

What are you doing? It's so weird. Look, I'm not here to talk about education or health care or for real people's freedoms. I'm not here to talk about the economy. I'm not here to talk about the economy. I'm not here to talk about how to help our allies. What I really want to talk about, Hunter Biden is my number one priority right now for this country, is doing investigations on Hunter Biden. I mean, it is the most absurd thing in the world. And talk about our allies. You then have, again, don't interrupt your opposition when they're out there saying crazy stuff that's easily exposed as just ridiculous insanity.

But let's show this clip here of Marjorie Taylor Greene talking about, this is the new right-wing Marjorie Taylor Greene Republican conspiracy here, that FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange, that they were involved as an intermediary to funnel taxpayer dollars to Ukraine through a plot directly with Biden. And Brett, you gave a good description to me offline about, I had to call you up. I'm like, what is this? What's this? Cause I was like, what's this conspiracy? Wasn't the right wing, like, aren't all these right wing people, like, weren't they the ones pushing like the crypto stuff? And they were the ones out there saying doji's on a rise and this one and that one, like, that was like a right wing thing. All, all of the right wing, like podcasts, all advertised for for FTX. And this FTX company gave tens of millions of dollars to Republican PACs.

They gave tens of millions of dollars to Democratic PACs as organizations do. But like if you go back and look at a lot of these people's podcasts, it's like brought to you by FTX. Like they sponsored all of these Republican stuff. But Brett, let's play this clip of Marjorie Taylor Greene. Break down for me what they're saying. And then I want to give you my thoughts. But let's talk about the aid to Ukraine. Here in the news, we're just finding out about the situation with FTX and the cryptocurrency. So is American people's taxpayer dollars going to fund aid in Ukraine, but yet it's really funding something else that's happening,

maybe ending up in Democrat donors' pockets? Was that helping Democrat campaigns? Was that helping Democrat candidates get elected? All right, let's unwind this a little bit, because I'm sure a lot of you listening to this are like, what the hell is she talking about? And what is FTX? And what is this whole thing? And I don't blame you because it's like they speak their own language sometimes. I truthfully, even like when people come and like try to troll comments on Twitter and things by saying things about the demon rats and whatever, it's like I need a Google Translate for MAGA. I need a Google Translate to understand what the hell these people are talking about. But this whole thing is there was this cryptocurrency exchange has been explained called FTX. And FTX had a lot of money.

It grew quickly in popularity. They had, I believe, Super Bowl commercials where they had celebrities. It was being pumped on all of these right-wing podcasts. You know, crypto is a big part of the right-wing ecosystem. It's been a big part. I'm not saying only right wing people do crypto, but it certainly has taken a foothold in this right wing ecosystem. And they were kind of the core people selling this thing throughout their podcast networks and whatnot. Stadiums named after FTX. I mean, it was huge.

Yeah. And so the company gets a lot of money from all these investors hoping to get rich off crypto. And it basically goes belly up. That's kind of its own other story that we'd get into another time. But for the sake of this story, all you have to know is that the company crashes- They use their deposits though, Brett, and they use their deposits to basically rob from Peter to pay Paul. They also had a hedge fund called Alameda. So they took people's deposits on the currency exchange to then pay for what they were doing on their hedge fund. And then when people realized they were doing that, everyone said, all right, well, give me my money back.

And then they had a liquidity crisis because they couldn't give the money back because they were taking the money. And so this company went from being valued at billions and billions of dollars to being now bankrupt because of that. And it's a big, it's unlawful. It's a big no-no. You don't take money from deposits and steal it's a big, it's unlawful. It's a big no-no. You don't take money from deposits and steal it so you can give it. But anyway, that's the underlying issue. I just

wanted to say that with FTX, but go on Brett about what the thing here is that- It's this young entrepreneur, Sam Bankman Freed, I believe his name, they call him SBF as the initials that he goes by. And he is like this young kind of tech bro-y figure who, you know, in a lot of ways reminds me of a version of like an Elizabeth Holmes, the Theranos woman. And I'm sure there will be a series and a Netflix doc or whatever about this whole scenario, probably about Twitter too, because Elon is looking like that's the direction where all this is going. But those are the vibes you get, kind of big promises. And at the end of the day, it's all a fraud. It's all a Ponzi scheme. And so basically, they had a ton of money and FTX donated tens of millions of dollars to Democrats. I think the SBF dude donated something like 42

million to a Democratic PAC. And then he also himself had given to Republicans. Then the other executive gave something like $25 million or so on ballparking it here to Republicans. So it was going to both sides, wealthy people, investment banks and stuff. I mean, they do that. They give money to PACs. That's a part of our politics. I'm not for it, but it's a part of our politics that exists.

Where the Ukraine stuff comes in is FTX partnered with a fundraising site that was called Aid for Ukraine. They basically provided the technology where people who had cryptocurrency could use their cryptocurrency, could donate that cryptocurrency to the Ukrainian humanitarian organizations. And this in-between, what they would do is it would convert the cryptocurrency into cash and get it to the Ukrainian humanitarian organizations. That was it. It was a way to donate to the Ukrainian humanitarian effort. Now they're trying to spread this idea that this means Republicans were involved in investing in FTX. And this is where it kind of gets weird. And I mean, if it hasn't gotten weird yet, this is where it gets even weirder because Republicans have been spreading this lie that US tax dollars went to Ukraine in the form of this military and humanitarian aid.

Then Ukraine partnered with FTX and invested that money heavily into FTX. Once again, did not happen. The founder of FTX then donated the money to the Democratic Party and PACs and candidates. And FTX the whole time was simply a money laundering intermediary for the Democratic Party, Zelensky and Joe Biden. I mean, it's truly to support Ukraine against Putin, that that was the whole thing here was the end of it was to deal, was to help Ukraine out. I mean, meanwhile, literally, if you want to have the honest conversation, it is that billions of tax dollars, this is true, was appropriated to support Ukraine because there is an existential fight for democracy and for freedom where our enemy, Vladimir Putin, the dictator of Russia, wants to conquer all of

Europe and wants to destroy the United States and interferes with our elections and unlawfully invaded Ukraine. So if you want to have the honest debate and what Marjorie Taylor Greene wants to say, we shouldn't give money to Ukraine, at least she's structuring the debate on the terms that we could say, but they want to create this whole conspiracy rather than get into the heart of what the actual issue is. Because tens of billions of dollars went to Ukraine, we support that. Americans should support that. There's an international effort to stop Putin's aggression and lawful invasion, but yet they approach it from this conspiracy angle to lie and to gaslight the American people. Yeah. I mean, they want you to think that Ukraine took the money given to them from the U.S. government, invested it in this FTX, built up Ukraine and Zelensky built up FTX personally, and then they funneled that money from FTX to Democratic candidates to win the midterms.

It's just the most, like on its face, it just doesn't even make any sense at all. But they are so confident in this story. And you have even people like Elon Musk who are pushing this story. You have right-wing investors kind of pushing this story. They're trying to absolve themselves of blame for pushing crypto, for being on the wrong side of this. And they are frankly doing Putin's bidding here by spreading conspiracy theories against Ukraine and against the United States' support of Ukraine. The truth is, yes, of course, the US sent money to Ukraine. That's not a secret. It's a very transparent process. It's public. It's been voted on. The spending is all tracked. You could go online and see it. Ukraine never invested in FTX. They're not investors of FTX. They received humanitarian aid from people who had crypto who wanted to donate crypto based on a platform that ftx helped facilitate and that is the end of it

but it's just non-stop conspiracy theories remember we played that clip of charlie kirk from the last time where he goes i wonder who is the wendy rogers with charlie kirk the uh what is she a state representative or whatever in ours or whatever she is. She's a cool man. Jeez. But, you know, she was like, I wonder, all this time, were we living in a bubble? Were we just in a bubble, an echo chamber? They go back the next day to their echo chamber spreading these same lies that the average American doesn't even know what the heck they are speaking about. It's truly like,

who knows what they're talking about? I love it. Give them the mics. Give them the mics. Let them keep speaking because every time they speak, we get another voter on our side. I mean, these people are absolutely ridiculous. And then you go to their influencers again, like Ben Shapiro. Look, as we're talking about here on the podcast, like what are the issues we talk about here? We talk about like, how can we make education accessible to people, right? How can we make sure that all Americans have healthcare? Like, how do we stand up for people's freedoms? Like the freedom of a woman to have choice over her own body. How do we fight for people to be able to marry who they want to marry without the government saying, no, if you're LGBTQ+,

you can't have this or you can't have this. We're talking about infrastructure here in this country. We're talking about bringing jobs here to this country. We're talking about having Americans not just have a living wage, but a wage with dignity. We're talking about these issues. So these issues are not radical extremist issues. This should be on all of our minds because these are things we think about. Healthcare, education, jobs, right? Those are the things. And what are they talking about? They're talking about Ben Shapiro, right? This is what they're talking about. Our competition, if you will. This is what they're talking about in their echo chamber. As Disney begins pushing Strange World for next week's release, here's the reminder that their, quote, not at all secret gay agenda to target kids is ongoing. It's part of the plot of this movie, just as it was with Lightyear. Your kids, your choice. This comes from the same people who brought you Mr. Potato Head and the Green Eminem and Dr. Seuss. It is mind boggling that there is even an audience for that, that there are people who look at that and go, yeah, what I'm really upset about is that strange world it really bugs me it really bugs me that there's a gay marriage

in that movie i'm so i'm so livid can my representatives do something about that anybody elon elon i love when they all ask elon too like that's like one of their refrains that is a new thing that i see now yeah i've seen that in twitter reply elon what do you think elon could you confirm what do you think tell me how to to think, daddy. It's like the most ridiculous, pathetic thing. They're like, oh, well, we got to kill woke. Woke died. Yeah, we killed woke. Dude, care about your families. Care about people. Have some empathy. Have some damn empathy and understand what government is for. It's not to fight your culture war battles. Government is here to actually help people. And you apparently do not give a shit about other people.

So step aside and let the adults in the room do the job, if that's what you think. And stick to your weirdo message boards. Stick to your 4chans. And stay the hell out of our government. It's just sick and deranged. And Americans are done with it. And they told them that we are done with it. And they're only going to get their ass kicked further and further by continuing down this path. It is absolutely ridiculous.

I am so excited now to bring in our guest this evening, Democratic superstar, 27-year-old Tennessee representative, Justin Jones, who will be joining us in just a moment. But before Justin Jones joins us, I do want to let everybody know though, that if you can, we've got a Patreon. Yes. At patreon.com slash Midas Touch. Would you consider becoming a patron of the Midas Touch network? We are not funded by any outside investors. That right there is a pretty radical concept, Brett and Jordy. So we are not funded by any of those millionaire or billionaire investors who fund the both sides media, who fund the pro-fascist media. Going through the portal.

And I think we've showed how important true independently funded media is right now where you're not beholden to those corporate interests. So that's why we have Patreon and you can become a patron. There's lots of exclusive content that you can only see on patreon.com. Now, we still will have all of the great content we do for free here on YouTube, so don't worry about that. But there is exclusive Q&As and bonus

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At this rate, you might not even have another place to find us. Can I just say one more quick thing about the Patreon real quick? We did a spicy Q&A the other night for our patrons out there, and we got some good reviews on that one. So I think if you join now, you could still get access to prior content that we posted. So you can check out what I'm talking about there. And you can ask questions for the next one. And I have one word, and we'll just leave it cryptic.

Frozen Gushers. Wow. Frozen Gushers. He did it. He said it. He said it. This podcast is also brought to you by our partner, Athletic Greens. Our next partner has a product I use literally every day. And I started taking Athletic Greens because I had all of those

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whether you eat keto, paleo, vegan, dairy-free, or gluten-free, it's for you. It costs you less than $3 a day. So you're investing in your health and it's cheaper than your cold brew habit. It tastes really good. I like the way it tastes and tons of people take some kind of multivitamin, right? So it's important to choose one with high quality ingredients that your body will actually absorb. Right now, it's time to reclaim your health and arm your immune system with convenient daily nutrition, especially heading into the flu and cold season. It's just one scoop in a cup of water every day. That's it. No need for a million different pills and supplements to look out for your health. And to make it easy, Athletic Greens is going to give you a free one-year supply of immune-supporting vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase.

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with Democratic superstar, Tennessee Representative Justin Jones. You know, there's a lot of great stories, this midterm elections that we've been highlighting here. But one that I really wanted to share with the Midas Touch community is that of now Tennessee Representative Justin Jones. He's 27 years old, the newly elected state representative from Tennessee's 52nd District. And Jones went from being arrested over 14 times with all charges being dropped for making good trouble, but organizing protests for racial justice and police accountability during a 62 day sitting outside the state capitol to now becoming the youngest lawmaker in the Tennessee state capitol. An incredible story. And we're excited to hear about it. Justin Jones, Representative Jones, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much, brothers. It's an honor to

be here. Thank you. So let's hear about your background. So I got to tell you, a friend of the podcast, Gloria Johnson said, who's a representative in Tennessee, said, you got to speak with Representative Jones. The story is incredible. And I looked into your background, but I want to hear it from you. Tell us how you went from being, you know, activist to running for office and all of the roadblocks that you faced, including being arrested 14 times. Yeah, well, it is definitely been a journey and it's still surreal to be here, a building that I was arrested from, you know, many times I was even banned here for a year in 2019 as part of one of the court agreements. And in 2020, they tried to file a special motion to put a gps ankle bracelet on me so that i would be banned from capital grounds so it has

been a battle to get into the people's house but i'm proud to say that i've went from the jailhouse to the state house um and that this is the people's house of tennessee and so um you know i started organizing um in tennessee when we passed our restrictive voter laws that made it harder for college students to vote but 10 years ago when I was at Fisk University, got involved and saw the craziness we were dealing with with this Republican supermajority that, you know, is largely based on the politics of white supremacy and violence against our communities. And so led a lot of the protests in 2020 as well, where I had the majority of my arrest was around, you know, police accountability and racial justice. We had multiple demands. One was to, you know, demilitarize the Tennessee Highway Patrol,

to look at shifting funding to social services and social workers, and also to remove the statue of a KKK leader that we have in our state capitol that had been there since 1978. And we got the statue down, but now we have to remove the laws it represents. We are the birthplace of the Klan. We are a state where a lot of these conservative folks like Candace Owings and Tommy Lauren and all these other folks are moving here. So we have to be alert. And this is really the front lines of the battle. And so I got tired of begging these politicians to change, got tired of getting locked out. And so I said, it's time to change who's in those seats. I ran. I'm the first, I'm the youngest lawmaker currently serving. I'm also the first black lawmaker in my district, District 52, which is the most diverse district in Tennessee. So I hope that's an okay background.

So I want to show all of our viewers and listeners the video of you heading into the Capitol for the first time, a place where you were arrested in front of. And then after I play the video, I want to get your reaction. And if you could just tell us like what was going through your mind as you made that journey. So let's play the clip. Heading to the Capitol, first day, midnight last night, it was official. Representative-elect for District 52. A little bit nervous and it doesn't feel completely real yet. It's a familiar place. It's the people's house. And so we should be welcome there. Equally elected representative for 78,000 constituents. Ten years ago when I first came to the Capitol as an undergraduate student fighting for voting rights and where we are now, you know, how much has changed and how much has stayed the same. I mean, I never imagined this. I don't think a lot of people imagine this. Two years ago, I was banned,

I was arrested from this building. They tried to file a motion to put a GPS ankle bracelet on me to keep me from Capitol grounds, and yet the people have spoken and they want strong fighters and bold voices for our district. This is the people's house in the plaza where we were arrested. I was arrested in 2020 14 times, staying on that plaza, sleeping on that plaza. We're on the plaza because we couldn't get in the building. Starting today, once I go to HR, I'll have a key and ID. So this time when we go in, the troopers won't be bringing me to jail, but hopefully we should be showing me where to park and how to get to my you know my new office the people's office of district 52

is quite the arc bending toward justice in tennessee so here we go so if you can tell us tell us about like what was going through your mind at that time it was just i mean until i walked in and got you know we get these security pins we get our badges i don't know where i put my badge you know we're official now yeah and so know, the same troopers who arrested me had to show me, you know, that same agency had to show me where to park and say, you know, say, representative, this is your parking place. And it feels surreal. I see colleagues, I see representatives who have shut the door on my face who now are my colleagues. I see spaces of power that people like me are not supposed to be in where they can't keep us

out anymore. And I, you know, the important thing too, that I keep emphasizing is that, you know, this is, this is for the people. Like, I think that's really what I'm trying to do with my election is demystify the process, put transparency in here. That's why that video, we wanted to show people like, this is what the process is. Cause most of us, I mean, I didn't realize it happens the next day after you get elected in Tennessee, our state law, you become the representative the next day at midnight, actually. And so, I mean, a lot of us didn't know that. And so the process we go through, you know, I'm grateful for the Tennessee Hall of for covering that experience that was very surreal. That's still surreal. You know, I brought a large picture of people who

inspire me of John Lewis, who was also a young person who got arrested in Nashville right here outside the state capitol, desegregating lunch counters, and then went to Congress. And so I think, you know, we have a history here in Nashville of young people getting in good trouble, getting in the way, and disrupting systems of injustice. And so I'm hopeful, and I'm still, you know, I've been here trying to prepare drafting bills, learning about the process, but also I think it's just it is our presence being in this building that is really a threat to the systems that want to that fear multiracial democracy, that fear multigenerational democracy. Like our presence here is a threat. And, you know, me and Sister Gloria Johnson, we are the Good Trouble Caucus. Gloria was one of the homies who stood with us in our protest, one of the few lawmakers who came out with us. And that's what I hope to be, is to be a representative of the people. One colleague told me already, you either can be an activist or a legislator. I'm going to be both

because activism is about activating people. It's about organizing people and it's about shining light on issues. And so I don't believe we have to make a choice and particularly not in a state where people are trying to take us backwards to 1950. So we got to be active. Well, because the opposition's active, taking away people's rights and taking away people's freedoms and they're activists of hate, you know. And so, you know, the person who gave you that advice, you know, the what what the right wing extremists in Tennessee were fighting you for before you ran for office were things like, well, what were you fighting for? Expansion of Medicaid in Tennessee, right? Repealing a restrictive state voter ID law, confronting systemic racism in policing,

challenging a dangerous bill that would seek to limit the First Amendment rights of nonviolent protest. I mean, you have the right wing there taking away freedoms and you're fighting for restoring freedoms to all people of Tennessee. That's how I view the issue. That is a good point, Ben, because I mean, it's interesting that for me, you know, they try and portray me as an extremism, but we had insurrectionists serving in the legislature like Terry Lynn Weaver. We have people who prayed over the bus that went to D.C. to commit the insurrection who serve in the Senate. We have people who, you know, defended a statue of the KKK. And we have the first bill being filed this session already is a bill to make it a drag shows

criminalized. Like that is what their priorities are. I mean, this is insanity. And it is it is something that we have to stand against. And so I think that was exactly right, Ben, is that, you know, I'm proud of my record. I think that's a good bill you brought up because that actually was a turning point for me, too, was last year. They didn't only try to criminalize protests, but they try to make a law to make it legal to run over protesters. And that for me was this aha moment. Like these people really are, you know, legislating violence against people like me. And so we have to stand, you know, stand up in here and be a voice of truth. We're able to kill that bill by speaking before the

committee. But the fact that that was even considered made me feel like we need to remove some of these folks that this is not the Bellmead Country Club, which is one of our Republican country clubs. This is not, you know, a palace, but this is the people's house. I'm going to take our power back. That's what seems to happen whenever Republicans get a majority or especially in the case of Tennessee, a super majority where you would think, oh, now I have this power. I could use it to do good, but they just seem to use it to double down and triple down on their extremism. I mean, let's talk about the example that you just put forth. I mean, there are obviously a ton of issues on people's minds right now, from inflation to social security to racial justice

to abortion. Yet the first bill this GOP supermajority put forward after the election was, like you said, to make drag shows a felony. That was their priority. I mean, what does that tell you right there about the Tennessee GOP? They are out of touch. I mean, I spent from the spring to the summer, I was canvassing, knocking on doors, talking to people across not just my district, but when I went to Knoxville to canvas as well. No one brought this up as an issue, but for them, because of some type of fragile masculinity or whatever they're dealing with, you know, projection, this was a priority for them to file right after, you know, the morning after the election. And I'm very concerned that this is what they go to sleep thinking about and fearing that the people in their districts have no representation because statewide, we have hundreds of thousands of people who don't have health care. We have the highest number of low-wage workers in Tennessee. Tennessee is one of the most unequal states economically when we

look at our tax system. We tax groceries, but we don't tax corporations. And so this is the issues that we're dealing with. And so my message to them is that we need to go to their district and really shame these harmful, you know, policy agenda that is not about the people, but that's about, you know, hate. And that's about creating this type of Southern aristocracy is what I would call it. They're trying to, you know, they're doing this politics that serves the interests of very few by dividing, conquer, by keeping us afraid of each other, by trying to keep us in silos. But like I told one of my constituents who called me last night, who was a drag star performer, who called me saying

that this is going to put them in danger and make them afraid to be in their own skin, is that if they come from one of us, they come from all of us, whether it's racial justice, whether it's our LGBT community, whether it is women, we're going to stand together because they've been, you know, they're united in their hate and we got to be united in our fight for justice. And while you're talking about justice and are speaking about the issues, like everything I see coming from the Tennessee Republicans, who I think is a microcosm of Republicans at large, is just this extreme corruption that we're seeing throughout. I mean, the Tennessee House representative who was the House speaker there,

Glenn Cassidy, who sought vengeance on you and tried to revoke your bail. He had decided not to run this year after he and his chief of staff were basically caught sending each other sexist and racist text messages in his home.

And you correct me if I'm wrong on any of these facts here. His home and office were raided by the FBI. He was indicted for a role in an illegal kickback scheme. Is you making it to the state house karma? And what's your take on all that? It is very interesting that for so long, you have these Republicans. I mean, that is a wild story. People are not in Tennessee. For us, this is normal. This is a Tuesday, But this is the reality of what we're

dealing with. And so we had a House speaker who engaged in criminal acts, who was racist, and usually racists are also corrupt. So, you know, it goes hand in hand. And he was caught for his corruption and charged with wire fraud and a vast, you know, majority of other crimes. I told him I forgive him, you know, like, cause I, you know, I, I, that's his journey now, but I think that it's emblematic, emblematic of a larger issue because we got rid of speaker Cassidy. He resigned, he was ousted, but we still have this extreme party. Our speaker now is just as extreme, but he's more sophisticated,

more subtle in it. And so I'm trying to, you know, I look at these things systemically, but, but more than that, I think that, you know, what we have to show is that they, for so long, particularly in 2020, they tried to portray us as lawbreakers and as criminals. We had Speaker Cassidy arrested. He had to resign from speakership because of crimes. You had Representative Robin Smith from Chattanooga, one of his co-conspirators who had to resign was, you know, FBI. You had David Byrd, who admitted to being a child molester. You had Terry Lynn Weaver, a representative who lost her election, thankfully, who was at the insurrection. You had Senator, State Senator Brian Kelsey, more financial crimes with his campaign. And so these Republicans want to call

us criminal, but let's let's look at the receipts. That's all I can say. The projection is just off the charts. It's just it's it's absolutely wild. But in the midst of those extremists who have a super majority, unfortunately, there are Democratic stars like yourself, like Gloria Johnson, who we spoke about before, who's a friend of the show. So how do you and your fellow Democrats there, how do you govern as a minority party there in Tennessee against that sort of opposition? This was a really interesting issue that came up during my campaign because we had people saying, oh, Justin won't be able to get along with Republicans. We need someone who can get along with them, play the game. But what I told my district, and I was very honest, is that we are a super minority. Our job is to be a speed bump, to be a mosquito, to oppose them. I love watching videos at the House of Commons where you have the opposition government

really being a check on power. That is what we need to be here. And I know so many, you know, particularly here, there's this type of Stockholm syndrome where people are afraid to speak up, you know, and be getting in good trouble, as John Lewis called it. But that is what we have to do where we have nothing to lose.

We have now 24 Democrats in the state House of Representatives out of 99. We are a super minority. And they remind us of that every day. And so our job is to disrupt harmful bills, is to us to organize our districts, is to open the doors to stand with the people. Whether it's labor unions, whether it's women's rights groups, we need to be with them and make sure that we can use these pins, whatever they give us to give them access, let them know that they are welcome in the people's house and that we'll sit in these committees and let them speak and be their voice as well and speak with them, you know, to try and make it so that what's happening is not happening in secrecy or in darkness. I was in a meeting two days ago with the Black Caucus and the governor's finance and administration commissioner was there and

talking about the governor's priorities during budget being public safety and more police. And I had to speak up and say that, you know, did we learn nothing from 2020 that we're the most incarcerated, the most jailed nation, the most police nation in the world, but we're not any safer. Let's put money and funding towards social workers. Let's put money toward mental health and education. Police come after crime happens. We want to prevent crime. Let's look at the social issues and have a comprehensive solution. And that's what we have to do is we have to lift up these issues where traditionally they haven't been lifted up. Also, I'm very interested in environmental issues. You know, I had somebody tell me that here no one has really talked about that.

But being the only person in this body in my 20s, I know we're going to have to deal with the climate crisis that is already here. And so we have to take this seriously and have colleagues who are saying that's not real. It's snowing outside. But their grandchildren are going to be dealing with the effects of this issue. And Tennessee needs to take it seriously. Hi, I'm Harry Littman, host of Talking Fed, a roundtable that brings together prominent figures from government law and journalism for a dynamic discussion of the most important topics of the day. Each Monday, I'm joined by a slate of Fed's favorites and new voices to break down the headlines and give the insiders view of what's going on in Washington and beyond. Plus sidebars explaining important legal concepts read by your favorite celebrities. Find Talking Feds wherever you

get your podcasts. Unbelievable. I've heard you now bring up the late, great John Lewis a few times here, an absolute legend, powerhouse. And you actually had brought his poster into the office with you, which I think is pretty cool. So when you look at that poster as you come into your office every day now, what does that image, what does his legacy mean to you? And how do you, I guess, plan to go from here now and cause even more good trouble? I have the honor of working in DC in 2016, when John Lewis led the sit-in on the floor of Congress. And that for me was a defining moment that, you know, even in this position that we can still be genuine and authentic to the values to which we are, you know, which led us to these seats. And so when I look at John Lewis, I think about this poster, which actually I say from 2020, we had a vigil after he passed.

And I remember I found out that he passed away while sitting outside the Nashville jail, waiting for some of my friends to get out from the protest of 2020. And it hit me because he is somebody who I admire. I also went to the same university, Fisk University. And I remember when I went to DC, I was an interning from him, but I stopped by his office one afternoon and I waited a few minutes and his assistant said, you know, he'll have a moment, just a quick moment to talk to you. But when he came out and I told him I was at Fisk, he spent over 30 minutes going around to every picture in his office saying, you know, CT Vivian, you know, you know, here's James Lawson and just talking about that legacy and the fact that he poured that into me.

And then he said, you know, you'll really appreciate this. And he went into his desk and took out his arrest, his frame arrest certificate from Nashville. And I'm like, that is the type of politics, that is the type of public servant that, you know, we need. And that's somebody who just breaks my heart. But I know that his spirit is with us. That is emotional because it is a full circle. And my office right now where I'm located is actually on John Lewis Boulevard. You know,

the state capitol's offices are on John Lewis Way, excuse me, John Lewis Way. And I think that is not just a symbol. I think that's a call to action. That is a reminder that we have to get in good trouble. And that when people come to my office That is a reminder that we have to get in good trouble and that when, when people come to my office, you know, come to John Lewis way and see, you know, where we are located at the intersection of John Lewis way and MLK Boulevard, ironically, the state Capitol again, these are reminders that we have to continue the movement of the civil rights movement is not history, even though they're trying to ban that,

but it's a continued struggle that we have to engage in. That's evolving. You know, when we look at, again, climate justice as a part of racial justice and civil rights, we know who's impacted. Representative Jones, that's the one thing I really do want to ask you as well. You know, there's a lot of mainstream coverage on a lot of different topics around, you know, what's happening in the U.S. But it feels like climate change is something specific that you're taking a stand for. Are there other issues that are specific to your district, too, that the mainstream media you feel like is ignoring that you want to talk about? Thank you, Jordy. There's so many issues. I mean, my district, and it's

unique even in Tennessee, where again, it's the most diverse district. We have over 62 languages spoken in my district. And so in Tennessee, you know, look, we have a large refugee population and people who, they said, you know, politicians don't come to us because we don't vote, you know, but we still have we still are impacted by the laws. And so, you know, I just hope that we look at how legislation is impactingizes white supremacist violence here as like it's normal. Like no one that speech that was given a few nights ago by that crazy man should not have been given that type of traction. And we see that a lot in Tennessee where we hear extremists given the same platform where they try and parallel us. Like they try and put me as an extreme and put these the KKK as the other extreme I'm like we're talking about giving people health care we're talking about giving people voting rights

they're talking about you know killing folks how are we they're like well you need we need to go to the middle that's not that's not what we need to do is we need to like don't don't equivocate us you know don't make us equals. And so I think that's a concern that I have, um, is that they call us extremists, but we have to be clear, even in media about who is extreme. There's one party who's trying to, you know, not even a party, but there's a group, you know, a elite group of people here. It's these, these, these, um, wealthy white men, predominantly from Williamson County, who are trying to hold on to power. It's the richest County in Tennessee and the, and everybody else is hurt. Like, I really believe that the

South, I'm here in Tennessee. I believe that the only thing that will save us is a multiracial movement and that we have to get outside of a place like Nashville, but we have to go to rural counties, go to Grundy County, which is the poorest county in Tennessee, go to Giles County, where the Klan was founded, because their hospitals are closing these rural counties. They are being impacted by these low wages. And their representatives are out here talking about drag shows. We need to shame them and show that we have the same issues in my district that you have in your rural districts, but you've made these wedge issues, these type of sensational, crazy non-issues that have nothing to do with the people.

Facts, facts, facts. Representative Jones, I want to ask you about this too, now switching gears back to the election. Now, one of the things like I just truly respect about you as a person is just how how genuine you are. You know, it's really incredible to see this sort of, you know, I think it's a word that gets overused. But in this case, it's true, this authenticity in politics these days. And I think that's super refreshing. Do you think that's one of the things that are registered for the voters in your district? I appreciate that, brother. That's kind. I think so. I mean, you know, I accepted and I claim my arrest because, you know, they said they're going to use that against you. I said, you know, before they put out my mugshot, let me go ahead and put out my mugshot because I'm not ashamed of my arrest. In fact, I'm smiling in

my mugshot because I know I'm on the right side of history. So, I mean, like, let's I'm going to show my grandchildren, like, yes, I got arrested because we're fighting for you. You know, like, I'm not ashamed of that. And like, you know, they tried to make that a shameful thing. Oh, he's an extremist. Oh, he's this black identity extremist. No, I mean, like I told this, I told, you know, these representatives, I told the troopers, we're fighting for your children too. You just don't know. You go ahead and bring us to jail, but we're fighting for everyone's future in the state. And so, you know, I think, you know, my district people, you know, want authenticity. And that's one thing that, you know, I hope to continue to embody is that here they try and create this mystique of power. Like, you know,

we are above, we are beyond, everything is so secretive. I'm like, no, this is, let's open the doors. Let's people, let them see what, you know, what we're doing and that half these members don't read the bills, you know, they don't even know what they're talking about. So we have to be authentic and we have to be real so that people realize that these forces that we're also against are not undefeatable, that, you know, what we're up against, that these, they try and make themselves beyond human, like, oh, the speaker of the house is honor, you know, we got to bow down to them. No, we don't. Like we, we, they are people, we are people, we are equals. And as I had to tell one representative a few days ago, cause I still have to kind of correct folks and be authentic

with folks. I'm not your intern up here. I'm your colleague. And so like, you know, some of these people act like I'm their intern. It's been interesting to engage with them where, you know, they love to call everybody else representative. Then here comes Justin or our buddy. I'm like, no, we're equals here. You're not going to be little me, you know, in the people's house, because we, we have the same vote in this house. And I think that's been the biggest challenge is here is how do you maintain authenticity in a place that is meant to destroy our spirit and destroy our joy and destroy our wholeness? This is a place where they want us to be broken. And I think the way we do that is by solidarity. You know, me and Sister Gloria, Representative

Gloria Johnson, the Good Trouble Caucus, like that is my homie. And we've stood together and, you know, we're going to stand together because what they like to do is isolate people and divide you and keep you separated and feel like you have no one. But like if we stand not just with the people in this building, but say I stand with the people in my district, like come up to the Hill. Like, you know, we're going to be bringing young people for a day on the Hill, which has never happened in Tennessee to bring college students and high school students from around Tennessee to come to the Hill and say, we're having a day on the Hill to talk about the future. Like these, we have to look at the long-term implications of these bills, how it's impacting young people. The average age in the legislature is like 75, 80. We need new voices who are going to be dealing with the long-term implications of these policy decisions. So. And that's where I want to go now is I just want to remind our audience,

Representative Jones is 27 years old and he's wise beyond his years over here. I mean, this election was the election of your generation. You know, we saw not only record turnout from Gen Z, but Gen Z activists like you and Maxwell Frost in Florida, you know, making their way into government. What do you think, you know, the long-term impact will be of Gen Z voices actually having a seat at the table? And then secondly, how can Democrats deliver for Gen Z and ensure they continue to show up? Definitely. I think it scared the hell out of a lot of folks. And so, like, I think the one thing I fear is that they're going to try and make it harder for young people to vote. So I'm like,

anticipating, like, are we going to have new, we already have this voter ID law where you can't use college IDs to vote anymore. I'm like, they're taking polling places off college campuses. They're scared. And so we have to be mobilized. And I think, you know, us, our generation stepping into our power is going to have a transformative effect. If our votes are not suppressed, if we're not, you know, if they don't create all these barriers and we can continue to participate. Nashville has over 15 colleges and universities. I mean, young people can control this city if we wanted to, and I hope we do, because that's the only way forward is that, you know, we offer a new perspective. We offer a perspective when they're looking at things like banning critical race theory, what they call critical race theory in

colleges. Like, we should have people who are, you know, in school, who recently been in school to talk about, like, this is crazy. We don't even, you know, do you even know what we're learning? Do you even know what critical race theory is when they're talking about we don't want to forgive student loan debt? Well, back in maybe the 1960s, you didn't leave school with hundreds of thousands of debt. But today we look at how much college costs we are. And so I think we need we offer a perspective. And also, I think we offer this intersectional lens.

But most importantly, I think that what young people are bringing to the table is urgency. This politics of gradualism, this politics of, oh, you know, you don't you have to understand that it's a slow process. You have to understand how it works to hell with that. We need to these issues that we're facing, the crisis in our environment, the crisis in our economy, the crisis of white supremacy. January 6th. I mean, that was, you know, this is a crisis. And so the crisis of police brutality, they require urgent responses. And I think that's what young people bring is this urgency and this moral clarity to say that there is such a thing as what is just and what is unjust. That there is such a thing as an issue that that that is an issue that, you know, we cannot have both sides and equivocate. Say, let's, you know, like we have one group of people trying to overturn democracy you have another group saying let's let

people vote let's let's make it easier for people to vote right you got to be clear that there is such a thing as as what is wrong what is not what is not you know so yeah representative justin jones thank you so much for joining us on the Midas Touch podcast. We appreciate you. Congratulations on your victory. And we look forward to following all the great work you're going to be doing in the Tennessee Capitol and your incredible career to come. Thank you. It is. It has just been great to be with you. You have such a good energy. So hopefully we can host you in person in Tennessee soon. Come on down. We would love that. There you have it. Superstar. Superstar.

Justin Jones. Jordy, what Gen Z, man. Is that Gen Z or millennial? Showing up. You know, he's Gen Z, but also on the cusp of millennial. It really depends where his birthday falls. So let me do some research and I'll get back to you before the end of the pod. Brett, what'd you think?

Do some research. I mean, incredible. Like so inspiring. I mean, incredible, like so inspiring. Um, I mean, Gen Z is going to take over whether it's Gen Z or millennial Gen Z is taking over. Um, but he, he's absolutely crushing it. I mean, from, uh, you know, what did he say from the jail house to the state house? What an inspiring story. Somebody who is really, you know, truly doesn't just talk the talk, but walks the walk and is getting out there and is really living up to the legacy of the great late John Lewis. Just really, really awesome to see. Really, really

inspiring. I'll give a quick update right now. What do you think? Should we give a quick update on Colorado's third with Lauren Bobert and Adam Frisch? So I'm seeing a few conflicting reports, depending on where the votes are counted. But one thing is for certain, this thing, everybody, this race is heading to a recount. Let's not get our hopes up here. Lauren Boebert, of course, has the advantage, her being in the lead. But her lead has just dwindled so much. Basically, when we were doing this show live, her lead was virtually cut in half.

I am seeing a bit of conflicting reports. When I did the math myself, I look like she was just 551 votes ahead. I'm seeing some people say 557. I'm seeing some people say 543. Either way, roughly 550 votes ahead. Lauren Boebert, her lead just slashed in half with the new ballot drop, with the new ballots counted. And hey, I think this shows us, you know, when we say every vote counts, every vote truly counts here. But we should be incredibly proud of, I mean, the fight that we put up here, regardless of the ultimate outcome. I mean, Adam Frisch defied all odds here to take on Lauren Boebert. And we will see what happens, and we will definitely keep you up to date. We got some more to talk about. I know Ben wants to break down some quick hits on the news. But first, I want to tell you all about a little company,

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Aspiration account at Aspiration.com slash tree. You heard that right. Aspiration.com slash tree. Help save the planet with your Aspiration debit card. Open your account at aspiration.com slash tree today. That's aspiration.com slash tree. Terms and conditions may apply. Aspiration is not a bank. Deposits are FDIC insured up to $2 million per deposit. Ben, what else we got? Some legal updates. Some January 6th committee updates. The January 6th committee yesterday hit back hard on former vice president Pence, who is doing this media tour to promote his book that nobody is going to buy, but I'll probably have some pack by it so they could inflate the numbers. This is some of the weirdest appearances by Pence.

He did this weird CNN town hall and spoke with a bunch of networks where he would just say things like, I looked deep down into my heart and first and foremost, I'm a Christian. Second, I'm a conservative. Third, I am a Republican. And despite the fact that Donald Trump tried to kill me, I would vote for him again. I've thought long and hard about it with my family. I've prayed on it and I've decided that I will be supporting him and any Republican in the election deniers. I mean, I'm slightly exaggerating, but that's basically what he said. And the January 6th committee said, one, what are you talking about? And two, Pence would attack the January 6th committee. Meanwhile, the January 6th committee pretty much was just talking to Pence advisors,

like Pence's former chief of staff, Mark Short, and Pence's former general counsel, Greg Jacobs, and everyone in the Trump administration from Trump's lawyers, Pat Cipollone to Patrick Feldman. All of the witnesses were Republicans. And the fact that Pence is saying, I've closed the door. I will not talk to the January 6th committee because I am deeply concerned that it is a partisan witch hunt against the person who tried to kill me. I mean, it is literal. I mean, it's just like- Is there any more delusional than this man? Is there anyone more delusional than this? Like this man really thinks that he has a chance in hell of being president of being the nominee. Like, are you kidding me? I think I saw something that says,

does the book come with a spine or is it spineless? Just like Pence. And like, how do you not like, I think voters, I think what the midterm showed by and large, like, don't you want people who are just normal, like pro-normal and would go, yeah, he tried to kill me. He tried to overthrow our democracy. You know, you know, Trump, like I am pissed off. I am livid at that. Our democratic institutions here are small d democracy. Institutions are critical.

And Pence is like, well, I'm the first Christian. I'm second, a conservative,, well, I'm first a Christian, I'm second a conservative, and third I'm a Republican. So of course I have to support the election denying candidates who also supported the effort to kill me. But why wouldn't I support them? Because they tried to kill you. Because they tried to kill you. And the January 6th committee hit back when Pence was like, it's a partisan witch hunt. They're like, no, it's not. We tried to engage with Kevin McCarthy, who decided that they were just going like children, no offense to children, to protest the whole thing after the Senate said that they wanted to look into it and the Republicans in the Senate and the Republicans in the House, they want to look into it. Okay, here we formed it. And Kevin McCarthy's response is, I'm just

going to protest it all. So that's one January 6th committee update right there. Also, according to Hugo Lowell, who just reported this breaking news, the January 6th committee has created a subcommittee led by Jamie Raskin to decide on criminal referrals and what materials to share with the Justice Department, according to Chair Benny Thompson and other members. I expect that they're going to recommend a criminal referral of Donald Trump and others in Trump's inner circle. I don't know what you think, Brett Jordy, but I'm pretty confident that that's what they're doing. I say yes. They're also going to, I think, find him in contempt. And it will be interesting to see if they also, before the term of this Congress

ends, propose a bill regarding the 14th Amendment, Section 3, to disqualify Trump, which just needs a majority in both houses. So I'm wondering if they will go there, but we will see there. Other additional legal updates, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which set an expedited appeal schedule from the Department of Justice appeal of Judge Eileen Cannon, the Trump appointee who improperly asserted equitable jurisdiction over the Trump theft of thousands of government records, including top secret records. She never should have asserted equitable jurisdiction in the first place. It's one of the rarest things that a judge can assert, only in the most egregious conduct of government overreach. And that was not even found here. But when she analyzed it, she said there was no callous disregard for the rights of Trump, yet she found that Trump's reputation could be irreparably harmed. And as a result of that finding, she then found this process where she appointed the special master. She was eventually overturned regarding the 100 classified records, and those records

were returned to the Department of Justice. So it's the same analysis that the Justice Department previously won on when they got those 100 classified records returned to them. So I suspect the Department of Justice is going to win. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals set oral argument for November 22nd. The final reply brief was submitted today by the Department of Justice. And the Department of Justice is like, look, so Trump's totally just changed his argument now. So first he argued that he was asserting executive privilege, even though he's not the president. And now he's moved to

that these are all personal records that he stole because when he packed them into luggage to steal them and brought them to Mar-a-Lago, that is a way that he converted presidential records into personal records by packing it and stealing it. And the Department of Justice was like, that absolutely makes no sense. But even if it didn't make any sense, or even if it did make sense, the fact that he's now saying they're personal records and that there's no executive privilege, his whole point to this whole process of equitable jurisdiction was this claim of executive privilege. So if he's saying they're now just personal records, there literally was no point to any of this because

we're engaged in a criminal investigation of him. So he literally just defeated any of the frivolous arguments that he already had. Speaking about frivolous arguments, that lawsuit that Donald Trump filed against the New York Attorney General was removed to federal court. And guess what judge it was just sent to? Judge Donald Middlebrooks, the same judge who sanctioned Alina Haba $50,000. We're putting it up here for the YouTube viewers that the case was assigned to Middlebrooks, in an impassioned sanction order, basically said that every single allegation in that lawsuit that was brought by Habba back in March that the judge dismissed was frivolous, every single one, and brought for an improper purpose. basis at all. He tried to sue her in Florida state court, arguing that appointing an independent monitor over the Trump organization was improper. I really don't even know what his lawsuit's about. When you read it, it's just like, Trump, great businessman. Letitia James, bad person. And then you go down to paragraph 119, and Trump's like, therefore, we don't want the New York attorney general's office looking into the Trump revocable trust.

And it's like, we can't do that and make that argument with the New York court. Like, why are you suing Letitia James? This case is more frivolous than the previous frivolous case that Trump's lawyer was sanctioned for. And Trump's lawyer, Alina Haber, was sanctioned for $50,000 in that prior one. But there's still a million dollars of sanctions motions pending before the same judge who already found the filing to be frivolous. Hillary Clinton and like eight or nine others filed that motion for over $1 million in sanctions. So Judge Middlebrooks is here in this case. Mark Meadows tries to go right to the South Carolina Supreme Court. He was compelled to testify before the Fulton County special grand jury. And like all of these cowards, these MAGA

extremist cowards, they just like they want to write books and they want to give speeches and lectures and just town halls on CNN. But the second that you actually got to speak in front of a court or a legislative body, all of a sudden it's, I can't do that. I'm offended that you would want me to speak about that. But let me write in my book that you could buy and I'll go on CNN to promote it. And Jake Tapper will host me and I will say, you know, that day was a difficult day, but, you know, my faith makes it so that I must proceed. And then I was just so offended by the fact that the January 6th committee would want me to speak to them. And like, I am honestly, I'm sick of the liars. I'm sick of the cheaters. I'm sick of these con artists. And if 2022 was the year that the blue wall held and stop autocracy from taking over, I damn sure hope that 2023 is the year of justice and accountability. And I'm going to put that into the air right now. Cause I'm, I'm sick of all these people. I'm I'm, you could tell this episode, I'm at my wits end with these people.

I'm I'm done with you all. Jordy? Jordy's mic is not working great, but you could talk. It's just making a whistling noise. Mark Meadows had lost in state court. It's a two-step process when you need a compelling out-of-state witness. Mark Meadows, I believe, either lives in North Carolina, South Carolina, or Washington, D.C., because he votes in all three places, but he claims to be a resident of South Carolina. So first, the attorney general or the district attorney rather has to get the subpoena in the state. Fawnie Willis gets the subpoena within the state of Georgia, Fulton County Court, finding that Mark Meadows is a material witness. Then you go to South Carolina.

South Carolina agreed, material witness, compelled him to testify. And now Meadows goes directly to the Supreme Court before even going to the Court of Appeals. He's set to testify, though, November 30th currently. And so we'll see what happens there. We will keep everybody updated, but this is just their pattern. And Biden is going to file an appeal. He's already filed a motion to stay the order by the Trump appointee judge in Texas who blocked the student debt cancellation program. That was Judge Mark Pittman who found that under the HEROES Act that the Secretary of Education did not have the authority to grant the student debt cancellation program or to provide for the student debt cancellation program and found that it was like an improper use of executive authority. And on a major question,

Congress didn't specifically talk about student debt cancellation in the HEROES Act. So therefore, the executive cannot act on it, even though the HEROES Act statute specifically says, or in other emergency situations situations that the head of the Department of Education can act to cancel student debt. But I guess that part he read out of the statute. Then he found like a weird, for standing, there were two students in that case who filed the lawsuit. And they basically said it was one student who only got $10,000 of student debt relief cancellation and wanted 20,000 that was being given to the Pell Grant. So that was the basis. I want the full 20,000. The fact that I got some relief, but not more of the relief,

that was the basis of standing. And someone else had a commercial loan and didn't get the student debt cancellation benefits. And so they argued that because they didn't get the student debt cancellation benefits. And so they argued that because they didn't get the benefit, they have standing to sue. They don't have standing. That's the most absurd basis for standing that because you didn't get a benefit that you are therefore injured. That's like the opposite of standing. Like you're not injured. Like literally that's the status quo. That would be like me saying, oh, when the Republicans pass all of this, these tax perks for the billionaires and when they did the PPP loans and when they bail out the auto manufacturers or whatever, if I don't get it, I have standing. I'm going to sue.

I'm going to sue for everything. Like literally that's the basis of standing there. So that was a Trump-appointed judge there who blocked student debt cancellation in Texas, a district court judge. But then also in the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals on an appeal from the Eastern District of Missouri, that Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals granted an injunction blocking the student debt cancellation program, basically indefinitely pending an appeal, which can take years. And so the Biden administration signaled they're going to appeal both of those, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court. The problem, though, if I'm just being completely honest with the Biden appealing the Eighth Circuit's order to

the Supreme Court, it goes to Brett Kavanaugh. Brett Kavanaugh is the emergency supervising judge over the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. And even if Brett Kavanaugh directs it to the full panel of the Supreme Court justices, it's like it's 6-3 against pro-democracy. It's like six MAGA extremist judges there. And so even if Justice Roberts, Chief Justice Roberts, votes with the pro-democracy coalition on the bench, you're still going to have five who are likely going to side with the Eighth Circuit. And the Eighth Circuit opinion was just not well-reasoned at all. They didn't even analyze the HEROES Act issue. They just found because this was an issue of major public concern, that therefore they're going to grant an injunction. They literally did not even do the

analysis of the law. They just found, okay, there may be standing here. That case was brought by the Republican-led states. So they didn't even analyze any of the other states other than the state of Missouri. And Missouri has this affiliated agency, which isn't a state actor, but that agency collects student debt. And so the idea being that the state would be damaged by the failure to collect student loans. And so that was the basis of finding standing, even though the district court judge found that that wasn't standing. But then after finding standing, the court didn't even do the analysis, the Eighth Circuit about like, okay, is there a probability of success on the merits here? They didn't do that.

They just said, well, it just involves like a big controversy here. So this isn't even going to impact students. That's literally what they said in the order. Like this has no impact on students because for now Biden has stopped the collection of student loans. So students aren't going to be hurt by this. So let's just grant an injunction indefinitely. That's literally what they said. And so I'll be honest here. I do not feel good about the prospects of the Biden administration succeeding. I think the student loan cancellation program is going to be blocked and is not going to be implemented. But I want to be very clear why. It's not a both sides issue. And I want to give you hope. I want to give you some hope. Hopefully they win. But based on the

moves on the chessboard, I don't believe that that's the way, you know, the Republicans have stacked the bench. These are in front of Republican judges. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, all like Trump appointees, like all extremists. The Eighth Circuit was all Republican. The Supreme Court's got six Republican appointees. So it just isn't looking good. It's not a both sides issue, though. It's not a both side issue. It is Republican Federalist Society lawsuits aimed to block student debt cancellation that Biden wanted to implement. They all file these cases across the country, and Republican judges are listening to Republican-brought cases and blocking it because

it's cruelty for cruelty's sake. And people go, well, why would they do that? Because they're freaking cruel. And they believe that that's a handout versus when billionaires get bailouts, that's capitalism. That's just the way the Republicans and Federalist Society view things. That's their world perspective. And I wouldn't know. As I told the story on some of the videos, when I went to Georgetown Law, I was being recruited for like Federalist Society stuff. Like law students are recruited for that all the time. And I did like one meeting and I was like, what the heck is this thing? And they promise you a great path of success, you know, and you're going to get big firm jobs and all this money, but you got to turn

against the people basically. I was there for it. I mean, just pay attention, folks. Pay attention to what's going on out there. Pay attention to the people who are trying to take away your rights. Pay attention to the people who are trying to help you with things like student debt relief and the people who are trying to take that away from you, because the contrast cannot be clearer. And as we face off against this new slim house majority for the next two years, they're going to continue to make things worse. They're not going to get in there as we've already seen. They're not going to get in there and go, oh, great. We have a slim majority. The smart thing for us to do and what the voters told us

by delivering us this very slim majority when we were expected to gain 40, 50 seats and we lost the Senate, voters were telling them was, you know, cut out the crazy. They're going to lean into the crazy. They're going to lean into their destructive behavior. They're going to play to their worst impulses every single time. They're going to sabotage the Biden administration. They're going to try to be a roadblock with everything. And it's up to us. We're not going to be able to stop them on everything or get past them on everything. I do have faith that Biden will be able to do more than we even think because he's proven his ability to do that. But as we go along on these next couple of years on this journey, just remember the people who are screwing you over and then make them pay in the next election.

I think that's on all of us. We really got to push back and we really got to tell people to cut the shit with the truth and the lies. Enough with the gaslighting. Enough with just making things up. Enough with the conspiracy theories. Just own your stuff. Own it. Own your craziness. Do something about it. Kevin McCarthy, you pathetic, pathetic individual. Do something about your party. Don't cave to the Marjorie Taylor greens. Don't let these people get away with their lies. I'm just, I'm, I'm so sick of it to bring this episode a full circle back to our, our Twitter conversation before we sign off for just getting in some other news right now, which is not so great for the look

of Twitter, which I'll bring up before we get on out of here. Well, from the Washington Post, which says recent departures at Twitter have left multiple critical systems down to two, one, or even zero engineers. This is a quote. I know of six critical systems like serving tweets levels of critical, which no longer have any engineers, a former employee said. This thing is crashing fast and hard, and it's not a great look. You have Elon Musk right now cracking jokes on Twitter about how do you make a small fortune in tech was to paraphrase his joke. He said, start with the bigger fortune and lose it was his hilarious joke as everybody's now wishing each other goodbye on Twitter. It's a very eerie, very eerie, eerie, eerie time out there.

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We're on counter search. Watch that be great. We just like laughed at it and we showed the video and it was like, oh, you didn't know what Mastodon was. I think we're on it fairly early. So I hope it succeeds. I hope it all succeeds. We need a place to be able to speak to everybody, but also make sure to check out our Patreon at patreon.com slash Midas Touch. That is surely not going anywhere. It's been a great way to really interact with the community. People get to send us private messages. They get to comment on our

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whatever the hell is going on on the internet. Ben, any final words? My final words are I'm going to do, I'm going to take it from Jordy here. What? Shout out to the Midas Mighty. At Midas Touch, we are unapologetically pro-democracy, and we demand justice and accountability. That's why we're spreading our message to convict45. That's right.

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