Fox News GETS IMPLICATED in Trump CABINET SCANDAL

Summary

The MeidasTouch Podcast Summary: "Fox News GETS IMPLICATED in Trump CABINET SCANDAL"

Release Date: November 20, 2024

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Introduction

In this episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast, hosts Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas delve into a controversial scandal involving Fox News and a significant figure within Donald Trump's cabinet. The discussion intertwines political intrigue, allegations of misconduct, and the interplay between prominent Republican figures. The brothers employ their signature blend of humor and critical analysis to unpack the complexities of the situation, offering listeners a comprehensive understanding of the unfolding events.

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Allegations Against Matt Gaetz

The episode opens with a detailed examination of allegations surrounding Matt Gaetz, recently appointed as Attorney General by Donald Trump. The Meiselas brothers highlight reports from ABC alleging that Gaetz engaged in misconduct involving underage girls. These accusations include taking minor girls to Fox News in New York for interviews and subsequently escorting them to Broadway performances, specifically mentioning the play Pretty Woman.

Key Points:

• ABC Reports: Gaetz's alleged activities with underage girls at Fox News and Broadway.
• Legal Responses: Lawyers representing the victims speak out on CNN, bringing further attention to the case.
• Previous Incidents: Reference to a March 30, 2021 report implicating Tucker Carlson in similar misconduct by Gaetz.

Notable Quote:

Unknown Commentator [00:00]: "Everything that Donald Trump touches dies... moments of chaos, you'll find opportunity to expose Donald Trump and this MAGA madness."

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Matt Gaetz's Defense and Interview with Tucker Carlson

A significant portion of the episode focuses on Gaetz's response to the allegations during his interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News. Gaetz vehemently denies the accusations, labeling them as extortion attempts orchestrated by elements within the Department of Justice.

Key Points:

• Denial of Allegations: Gaetz asserts that he has never engaged in illegal activities with underage individuals.
• Extortion Claims: He alleges that his father was threatened with a $25 million extortion scheme to fabricate charges against him (00:32 - 03:52).
• Connection to Matt Gates: Discussion on how Gaetz's claims may be intertwined with allegations against Fox News reporter Matt Gates, who previously implicated Tucker Carlson in trafficking activities.

Notable Quotes:

Matt Gaetz [01:33]: "Providing for flights and hotel rooms for people that you're dating who are of legal age is not a crime."

Matt Gaetz [02:42]: "What is happening is an Extortion of me and my family involving a former Department of justice official."

Matt Gaetz [03:57]: "It is not true. It is not true."

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Political Maneuvering and Ethics Reports

The podcast transitions to discussing the broader political implications, particularly focusing on the House Ethics Committee's investigation into Gaetz. The Meiselas brothers speculate on potential efforts by Republican leaders, including Jim Jordan and Kevin McCarthy, to suppress the release of the ethics report to protect Gaetz and, by extension, Fox News.

Key Points:

• Jim Jordan's Stance: Advocates against releasing the ethics report, raising questions about his motives (05:42 - 06:14).
• Kevin McCarthy's Comments: Initially dismissive of Gaetz's allegations but later acknowledges the seriousness of the ethics investigation (10:06 - 12:15).
• Senator Mark Wayne Mullen's Position: Expresses cautious support for Gaetz's confirmation while acknowledging potential questions surrounding his conduct (09:21 - 10:06).

Notable Quotes:

Jim Jordan [05:49]: "[The ethics report] should not be released."

Kevin McCarthy [10:43]: "He looks very unhinged... I hope the young women get the justice they deserve."

Mark Wayne Mullen [10:06]: "If he can, then we'll go through the confirmation process."

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Caroline Levitt and Trump's Campaign Response

The discussion moves to Caroline Levitt, Donald Trump's press secretary, who defends Gaetz's appointment despite the mounting allegations. Levitt emphasizes the Trump administration's commitment to rooting out corruption within the Department of Justice and portrays Gaetz as a victim of political persecution.

Key Points:

• Levitt's Defense: Asserts Gaetz's integrity and legal acumen, framing the allegations as part of a larger attack by the DOJ aligned with political motives.
• Promotion of Trump's Mandate: Highlights Trump's recent electoral success as a mandate for change, advocating for Gaetz's confirmation as a step towards restoring accountability.

Notable Quotes:

Caroline Levitt [12:07]: "Matt Gaetz is a great person. He's a man of integrity... Matt Gaetz and President Trump are going to put an end to that [DOJ corruption]."

Matt Gaetz [13:53]: "We could send criminal referrals to the Department of Justice... Attorney General Matt Gaetz down the road... provide the accountability."

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Revisiting the 2021 Interview and Fox News Implications

The brothers revisit the 2021 interview where Gaetz implicated Tucker Carlson in the trafficking allegations. They analyze the potential motivations behind these accusations, suggesting a strategy to leverage internal conflicts within Republican ranks and media outlets like Fox News.

Key Points:

• Signal to Protect Gaetz: Speculation that Gaetz's claims against Carlson were intended to secure protection from higher-ups within the GOP and media.
• Ethics Report Suppression: The intertwined efforts to prevent the ethics report from being publicized are viewed as attempts to shield not just Gaetz but also entities like Fox News from further scrutiny.

Notable Quote:

Unknown Commentator [15:04]: "Look guys, we don't think this report can go out. I wonder if there's something going on there..."

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Conclusion and Call to Action

Wrapping up the episode, the Meiselas brothers express skepticism towards the official narratives presented by Republican figures and raise concerns about the integrity of the political processes surrounding Gaetz's appointment and the suppression of the ethics report. They urge listeners to remain vigilant and informed, emphasizing the importance of accountability and transparency in supporting democracy.

Final Remarks:

Unknown Commentator [15:04]: "Wake the heck up. Wake up. Hit. Subscribe. Let's get to 4 million subscribers."

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Closing Thoughts

This episode of The MeidasTouch Podcast offers a critical look into the allegations against Matt Gaetz, the potential political maneuvering to protect him, and the broader implications for Fox News and Donald Trump's administration. Through a combination of investigative discussion and incisive commentary, the Meiselas brothers provide their audience with a nuanced perspective on a developing political scandal, encouraging informed discourse and accountability.

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Note: Advertisements and non-content segments have been omitted to focus solely on the substantive discussions within the episode.

Transcript

[Unknown Commentator]

Everything that Donald Trump touches dies. And remember what I said in a prior video. In moments of chaos, you'll find opportunity to expose Donald Trump and this MAGA madness. We're seeing that right now with his appointment of Matt Gaetz as Attorney General. As the investigation into Matt Gates is being made more public through leaks. One of the things we are now learning per ABC is that Matt Gaetz would take the underage girls, get this to Fox in New York. He would fly underage girls to watch him do interviews at Fox. Then he would take the young girls to Broadway plays like the play Pretty Woman about a businessman who falls in love with a prostitute. This is what ABC is reporting. Also, one of the lawyers for the girls who are the victims of ma, Matt Gates was speaking out on CNN as well. Now put this all together. Do you remember back we reported on this then think about the links here. March 30th of 2021, when Tucker Carlson was still a host at Fox at that time. Remember when Matt Gates implicated Tucker Carlson in his underage girl trafficking? A matter of investigation. Do you remember that? Remember he went on, Tucker, remember what happened here, watch this.

[Matt Gaetz]

And I only know what I've read in the New York Times. I can say that actually you and I went to dinner about two years ago. Your wife was there and I brought a friend of mine, you'll remember her. And she was actually threatened by the FBI, told that if she wouldn't cop to the fact that somehow I was involved in some pay for play scheme, that she could face trouble. And so I do believe that there are people at the Department of Justice who are trying to smear me. Providing for flights and hotel rooms for people that you're dating who are of legal age is not a crime. And I'm just troubled that the lack of any sort of legitimate investigation into me would then permute, would then convert into this extortion attempt.

[Tucker Carlson]

I don't remember the woman you're speaking of or the context at all, honestly, but I.

[Unknown Commentator]

You saw Tucker's reaction right there, right? This is from the interview as well. Let's play it.

[Tucker Carlson]

Congressman, thanks so much for coming on. I appreciate it. So this is obviously a serious allegation. Tell us what the truth is from your perspective.

[Matt Gaetz]

It is a horrible allegation and it is a lie. The New York Times is running a story that I have traveled with a 17 year old woman and that is verifiably false. People can look at my travel records and see that that is not the case. What is happening is an Extortion of me and my family involving a former Department of justice official. On March 16, my father got a text message demanding a meeting wherein a person demanded $25 million in exchange for making horrible sex trafficking allegations against me. Go away. Our family was so troubled by that, we went to the local FBI, and the FBI and the Department of Justice were so concerned about this attempted extortion of a member of Congress that they asked my dad to wear a wire, which he did with the former Department of Justice official. Tonight, I am demanding that the Department of Justice and the FBI release the audio recordings that were made under their supervision and at their direction, which will prove my innocence. And that will show that these allegations aren't true. They're merely intended to try to bleed my family out of money.

[Unknown Commentator]

And I will show you one more clip from that same interview. Here, play this clip.

[Matt Gaetz]

And I believe we are in an era of our politics now, Tucker, where people are smeared to try to take them out of the conversation. I'm not the only person on screen right now who's been falsely accused of a terrible sex act. You were accused of something that you did not do. And so you know what this feels like. You know the pain it can bring to your family. And you know how it just puts people on defense when you're accused of something so salacious and awful. But it did not happen. It is not true.

[Unknown Commentator]

I mean, you see Matt Gaetz there saying to Tucker, look, you know what? You've been accused of things like this, or I was at dinner with you when we put together the latest allegation that may be embedded in this ethics report about Matt Gates. And then you take a look at that interview with Tucker. I think serious questions need to be asked about. Is that what Matt Gates was referring to? There was Matt Gates sending a signal to Tucker, hey, you know what? I know you need to protect me. Is that what was going on? Because what's interesting about what's taking place as well about this ethics report is just obviously MAGA Mike Johnson. I was told not to call him MAGA Mike Johnson anymore. I was told to call him Donald Trump's little Johnson, but I still call him MAGA Mike Johnson for this video, MAGA Mike Johnson and Jim Jordan all wanting to make sure this ethics report doesn't get out. I wonder if one of the things they're trying to protect is not Matt Gates, but I wonder if they're trying to protect Fox here, that these sex trafficking victims may have been going to Fox and Gates was taking girls there to watch him. Here's what Johnson said. Play this clip.

[Jim Jordan]

I'm going to.

[Unknown Commentator]

Request.

[Caroline Levitt]

The Ethics Committee not issue.

[Unknown Commentator]

So now here's Jim Jordan. Let me play this clip right here of him saying that this ethics report detailing sex trafficking by Matt Gates, drug use and more should not be released. Play this clip.

[Caroline Levitt]

And Congressman Jordan, do you have any sense about what will happen with that House ethics report that was supposed to come out Friday? Remember, Gates had been accused of things and no prosecution had been continued. It had been dropped. But Dick Durbin is trying to get his hands on that report, obviously to leak it out to hurt President Trump. What is your sense on that?

[Tucker Carlson]

Well, it's my understanding that is not supposed to go public. So if it's not supposed to, under the rules, it shouldn't go public. And what I know about Matt Gaetz is one of the best members we had on our committee in my time in Congress, which has been a while. I don't know. There are very few people who have the cross examination skills he does. And I want someone in the Justice Department who's not going to say moms and dads at school board meeting needs to be investigated. I want someone at the Justice Department who's going to say it's wrong for the FBI to do a memorandum and say that pro life Catholics are extremists. I want someone at the Justice Department who can tell us who planted the pipe bombs on January 6, who leaked the Dobbs opinion, who put cocaine at the White House instead of all the other stuff they seem to be focused on.

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[Unknown Commentator]

Mullen, who's in the Senate now Mark Wayne Mullen is a senator from Oklahoma. He had previously said of Gates that Gates would go around and brag about crushing erectile dysfunction medication and having sex with girls. He would be telling all the other magas that in the House of Representatives. This is a MAGA guy, Mark Wayne Mullen, who said that about Gates there. But now Mark Wayne Mullen is a little bit mum about the report, so I wonder if there's some broader powers that be, whether it's at Fox or otherwise. That's also saying, look guys, we don't this report can go out. I wonder if there's something going on there because here's what Mark Wayne Mullen said recently. Play this clip.

[Mark Wayne Mullen]

Are you going to vote for Matt Gaetz? You know, Matt Gaetz and I, there's no question that we've had our differences. They've been very public about it. I completely trust President Trump's decision making on this one, but at the same time he's got to come to Congress and sell himself. There's a lot of or to the Senate and sell himself. There's a lot of questions that are going to be out there. He's got to answer those questions and hopefully he's able to answer the questions right. And if he can, then we'll go through the confirmation process. Senator Mark Wayne Mullen from the great state of Oklahoma, Good to see you, sir. Thanks so much for being here. I really appreciate it.

[Unknown Commentator]

Now you remember what Kevin McCarthy said at the Republican National Convention. Let's play this clip.

[Kevin McCarthy]

Get booed off.

[Matt Gaetz]

You would get booed off the stage.

[Kevin McCarthy]

That's the biggest challenge we have.

[Unknown Interviewer]

He said you would get booed off the stage. What's your response to him?

[Kevin McCarthy]

Well, you know, he looks very unhinged. I mean, a lot of people have concerns about him, and I'm not sure if he was on something, but I do hope he gets the help that he needs. But more importantly, I hope the young women get the justice they deserve when it comes to him.

[Unknown Interviewer]

I mean, you're referring to the House Ethics Committee investigation that is ongoing.

[Kevin McCarthy]

Yeah. With his partner in jail because they paid underage women for sex, drugs. Yeah, that's what I'm referring.

[Unknown Interviewer]

So he has denied all of that. I'm wondering, doesn't he deserve the presumption of innocence here?

[Kevin McCarthy]

Well, people are in jail. The women have confirmed it. He came to me. If I started, still wanted to be Speaker, I could have done something illegal and stopped the Ethics Committee investigation. That started four years before he told.

[Unknown Interviewer]

You to stop the other.

[Kevin McCarthy]

That's what the. That's what the whole motion to vacate was about. He believed. He wanted me to engage and thought somehow I started this investigation. It started long before I was ever speaker. And as you know, as Congress, I don't get involved in ethics. It's an equal number. They could investigate me. It has to be its own arm and branch. And so he wanted to leverage me to try to do that. And if I didn't, he wanted to do a motion to vacate.

[Unknown Interviewer]

And he's denied that, of course. That he urged you to stop the investigation.

[Kevin McCarthy]

No, I had other members come to me. He came to me. I had other people who were on.

[Unknown Interviewer]

Drug companies that he talked to.

[Kevin McCarthy]

Yeah, yeah. So, no, there's no denying it.

[Unknown Commentator]

Donald Trump's now press secretary and chief campaign spokesperson Caroline Levitt was on Fox, and I think also Fox is trying to kind of pressure Trump. Like, no, don't do Gates. But then you have Trump's crew like Caroline Levitt that are, I guess, professional rake steppers, and they're like, no, we want Gates here. Watch this. Play this clip.

[Caroline Levitt]

Caroline, what do you say to that? Does the President believe that Gates will get confirmed? And you hear Kevin McCarthy say that that won't happen, and everybody knows that. What do you say to that?

[Unknown Commentator]

We do believe that nine days ago, President Trump received a resounding mandate from the American people. A once in a generation mandate for change. Throughout this entire campaign, the American people made it clear they were Sick and tired of the status quo from the Harris Biden administration. They wanted a new direction for this country, and they chose President Trump to put American. He has rolled out 16 fantastic picks over the past nine days, and Matt Gaetz is one of those picks. I know Matt personally. He is a great person. He's a man of integrity. He also is a brilliant litigator. He served on the House Judiciary Committee for eight years. Anyone who has watched him in those hearings knows that he's incredibly impressive. And like President Trump, Matt Gaetz has been a victim of the weaponized Department of Justice. And one of the promises President Trump made to the American people was to root out the corruption at the DoJ. We have seen this agency turn against the American people because of their political beliefs. Matt Gaetz and President Trump are going to put an end to that. And that's what the American people want. That's why they elected him.

[Caroline Levitt]

So what do you say?

[Unknown Commentator]

Here was Matt Gaetz an interview he did back in August of 2023 indicating that he had, even as then, was having conversations with Donald Trump about becoming the Attorney general. Play this clip.

[Matt Gaetz]

That evidence out is important for just the sake of truth itself. But I don't ascribe to the theory that we just have to surrender sending criminal referrals because somehow Merrick Garland will never prosecute them for many of the crimes that we are observing. The statute of limitations is five years. And so we could send criminal referrals to the Department of Justice. We go take the White House back. And you never know, David, it may be an Attorney General Matt Gaetz down the road or someone of my liking who will be there to actually enforce the law and provide the accountability, not just the vision, but the actual accountability. The people that are sending you those messages deserve that in a free and just and constitutional republic.

[Jim Jordan]

Ye, we do. We absolutely do. And I like that. I like that. Attorney General Matt Gaetz. Are you kidding me, man?

[Matt Gaetz]

The world is not ready. Probably. Certainly Senate confirmation wouldn't be, but, you know, we're getting there. Boy can dream.

[Jim Jordan]

We're getting there. You can dream. And we got it. We got to start with taking back the White House. Let's start there. Congressman Gates.

[Unknown Commentator]

And so when you put all of those pieces together that I just shared with you, I mean, I will say this. You can come to the conclusion that there may be some deeper powers trying to block this ethics report. And it does seem, at least it seems, that Matt GATES and that 2021 interview was implicating Fox then and trying to send a signal that you need to protect me or else I know stuff about you. I'm not saying I know that for a fact, but you heard it and went and now lines up with the reporting of him bringing the girls to Fox and then to Broadway plays and bring them out town in New York as part of this trafficking investigation. We just talked to that about that. Donald Trump appointed this guy or nominated this guy to be attorney general. I think I saw the stat. 38% of Donald Trump's cabinet right now has accusations of sexual assault. It's not even mentioned Trump, he's been liable for sexual, liable for sexual assault. Wake up, people. Wake the heck up. Wake up. Hit. Subscribe. Let's get to 4 million subscribers.

[Unknown Advertiser]

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