MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 12/12/25

Summary

MeidasTouch Podcast Summary – December 12, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, the Meiselas brothers—Ben, Brett, and Jordy—deliver their signature blend of sharp political analysis, unsparing criticism of Trump-era politics, and good-humored sibling banter. They unpack the chaos of recent Congressional hearings, expose the disarray and failures within the Trump White House, and analyze resistance within the Republican party to MAGA overreach. The show emphasizes truth, transparency, and democracy, while calling out authoritarian tactics, propaganda, and scapegoating.

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Key Segments & Discussion Points

1. Congressional Hearings: Kristi Noem on the Hot Seat

[01:30] – [18:19]

• Kristi Noem (DHS Secretary) Testifies: Noem faces intense cross-examination from Democrats regarding the deportation of military veterans and the use of DHS resources against members of Congress.

  • Rep. Seth Magaziner confronts Noem with the story of Se Jun Park, a deported Purple Heart veteran, and Jim Brown, whose wife Donna faces deportation for a minor nonviolent offense.
    • Memorable Moment: Magaziner uses an iPad to bring deported veteran Park into the hearing via Zoom.
    • Quote: “Can you please tell Mr. Park why you deported him?” – Rep. Magaziner ([09:18])
  • Noem dodges and filibusters; when pressed, she abruptly leaves, falsely claiming another urgent engagement.

• Comparison to Past Officials: The hosts point out Noem’s evasiveness contrasts sharply with Hillary Clinton’s 12-hour Benghazi testimony, emphasizing the lack of transparency from MAGA officials.

  • Quote: “Republicans are constantly hiding and manipulating… Jack Smith and Hillary Clinton… they’re certainly doing it publicly.” – Ben Meisel ([23:09])

• Transparency & Accountability: The brothers stress how propagandists fear sunlight and how MAGA relies on controlling information rather than presenting facts.

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2. Crumbling MAGA Narratives

[25:31] – [30:09]

• The Antifa “Threat” Debunked:
  • At another hearing, an FBI agent leading Trump’s “antifa task force” crumbles when Rep. Bennie Thompson asks basic questions about the supposed organization.
    • Quote: “Where is the ANTIFA headquartered?” – Rep. Thompson ([28:17])
    • The FBI official is unable to provide numbers or locations, revealing the emptiness behind MAGA talking points.
  • Hosts’ Take: MAGA rhetoric falls apart under real scrutiny; when asked real questions, their claims are “just propaganda with nothing behind it.”

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3. Trump White House Chaos & Propaganda

[36:24] – [49:33]

• Caroline Levitt’s Press Debacle: Trump’s Press Secretary botches responses on multiple topics:

  • Trump’s Bruised Hands: Offered as a “side effect of handshaking and aspirin,” widely mocked.
    • Quote: “Donald Trump has all of those bruises and bandages because he’s out there literally shaking so many hands. You simple-minded people can’t even fathom…” – Jordi ([49:33])
  • Inflation Denial: Levitt misstates inflation figures, refusing to acknowledge ongoing price increases.
  • Rationing Toys: Struggles to explain Trump’s advice to parents to buy fewer dolls at Christmas, bizarrely spun as Americans buying “higher quality Made-in-USA” products.
  • Chip Sales to China: Unconvincingly justifies Trump’s approval of selling advanced Nvidia chips to China—contradicting years of MAGA “China hawk” rhetoric.

• Hosts React: The brothers ridicule the administration’s inconsistency, lack of policy depth, and inability (or refusal) to address real national security and economic issues.

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4. Trump’s Cognitive Decline & Gaslighting

[51:11] – [56:19]

• Strange Rhetoric & Declining Public Appearances: The hosts dissect Trump’s rambling speeches (“deadhead, fed, fed hair”) and odd mannerisms, openly question his health, and call out the administration’s attempts to conceal or gloss over his decline.
  • Quote: “Don’t piss on my face and tell me it’s raining. This should be a bipartisan take.” – Jordi ([49:33])
• Comparison Game: They note that any similar behavior from Biden would provoke a media firestorm, but Trump is shielded by his propagandists.

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5. GOP Resistance and Backlash – Indiana Gerrymander Fails

[61:53] – [72:53]

• Indiana Republicans Say No: Trump’s bid to force gerrymandered congressional districts is decisively defeated (31-19), despite threats from Trump & Heritage Foundation to withhold federal aid.
  • Quote: “Do you remember when Republicans pretended to be about states’ rights?” – Ben Meisel ([62:09])
• Broader GOP Fractures: Trump’s “power” is just a perception, waning as Republicans, even in deep-red Indiana, buck his threats.
• Hosts’ Analysis: Gerrymander attempts are backfiring; Democrats are winning races in Trump-won districts. Trump’s endorsements—and intimidation—are failing repeatedly.

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6. Discouraging Scapegoating, Arguing for Substance

[72:53] – [79:26]

• Republican Scapegoating: Hosts condemn MAGA rhetoric blaming migrants for housing shortages and other societal ills, calling it “a disgrace” and a historic tactic to distract from billionaire-driven structural issues.
• A Real Policy Debate: The episode contrasts demagoguery with Jerome Powell’s fact-based, sober analysis of the housing market.
  • Quote: “We haven't built enough housing… housing is going to be a problem and… tools to address it… we don’t have the tools to address a secular housing shortage.” – Jerome Powell ([79:26])
• The Brothers’ Plea: They urge honest, transparent debates over complex issues like housing and healthcare, rather than gimmicks like Trump’s “gold card” for wealthy immigrants.

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7. Trump’s Racist Rhetoric and Unlawful DOJ Overreach

[81:48] – [90:22]

• Immigration ‘Gold Card’: Trump unveils a citizenship track for wealthy immigrants, thinly disguised as a tool to favor whites and corporations.
  • Quote: “He’s saying that he doesn’t want people from countries that have Black people. Right. And he wants people from countries that have white people.” – Ben Meisel ([83:28])
• Failed Indictments of AG Letitia James: Trump’s DOJ repeatedly fails to indict New York AG Letitia James, even “shopping” grand juries and firing honest prosecutors, violating legal norms.
  • Quote: “They say you can indict a ham sandwich. Well, not if you’re the Trump DOJ.” – Ben Meisel ([88:36])

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• “Bringing out the iPad with the individual on the iPad, the veteran who was deported, was frickin’ masterful.” – Brett ([11:15])
• “Costumes, you can’t cosplay competency. And Kristi Noem got exposed up there.” – Jordi ([21:21])
• “The biggest enemy of propagandists is the truth.” – Brett ([25:31])
• “Where is the ANTIFA headquartered?” – Rep. Bennie Thompson ([28:17])
• “You simple minded people… can’t even fathom the amount of hands he’s out there shaking.” – Jordi ([49:33])
• “Don’t piss on my face and tell me it’s raining… there’s an entire political party out there, MAGA, who loves the piss. They’re, please, sir, keep pissing in my face. More piss. It’s disgusting.” – Jordi ([49:33])
• “Do you remember when Republicans pretended to be about states’ rights?” – Ben Meisel ([62:09])
• “He sounds like a child… he sounds like a kid who was playing a game, lost the game, and was like, you know what, wasn’t even trying.” – Jordi ([71:59])
• “They want kings… it’s intellectually dishonest because it’s not intellectual. It’s just authoritarianism masked as intellectual frameworks.” – Ben Meisel ([62:09])
• “They think money equals brilliance. They think money equals character. And that cannot be further from the truth.” – Brett ([87:14])

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Concluding Themes

• Erosion of Truth in the Trump Era: The episode persistently demonstrates how MAGA propaganda collapses under scrutiny and how old tactics (scapegoating, demagoguery, intimidation) are increasingly ineffective in American politics.
• Return to Seriousness: The brothers champion policy rooted in facts, data, and transparency, contrasting that with the chaos and evasiveness of the current Trump administration.
• Hope & Momentum: Despite all, the MeidasTouch team feels optimism for the resurgence of democracy and accountability, buoyed by recent Republican pushback against MAGA and Democratic successes.

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For listeners seeking robust breakdowns, scathing humor, and factual clarity amidst modern political fog, this episode is a strong entry in the MeidasTouch Podcast catalog.

Transcript

[Narrator/Announcer]

This is a real good story about Bronx and his dad, Ryan, real United Airlines customers.

[Ben Meisel]

We were returning home and one of the flight attendants asked Bronx if he wanted to see the flight deck and meet Kath and Andrew.

[Narrator/Announcer]

I got to sit in the driver's seat.

[Jordi]

I grew up in an aviation family, and seeing Bronx kind of reminded me.

[Ben Meisel]

Of myself when I was that age.

[Narrator/Announcer]

That's Andrew, a real United pilot.

[Jordi]

These small interactions can shape a kid's future.

[Brett]

It felt like I was the captain.

[Ben Meisel]

Allowing my son to see the flight deck will stick with us forever.

[Jordi]

That's how good leads the way.

[Ben Meisel]

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[Narrator/Announcer]

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[Ben Meisel]

Congressional hearings took place earlier in the day. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was confronted to her face and what can only be described as some brilliant cross examination by Democrats. She folded and then said she had to leave to go to a FEMA review board hearing which never actually took place. We'll break down what went down there. There were other big hearings also where Democrats confronted people at the FBI over over who's antifa, where's their headquarters? And this FBI guy just like folded on live tv. Didn't know what to say. We'll discuss what happened there. Donald Trump this week held a disastrous event in a small wedding banquet hall at the Mount Airy Casino in Pennsylvania. Yup, Donald Trump has been reduced to a wedding signer wedding singer, cognitively declining before this country. And he rolled out all his classic hits. He called countries in shithole countries, which he denied during his first term and said, why don't we have people from countries like Denmark and Sweden? Why are they coming from the shithole countries? Remember when that was announced during the first term and all the Trumpers like denied it? Donald Trump also said that farmers are getting rich because of the bailout that he just gave them because they're being bankrupted by his tariffs against the world. And of course, Donald Trump gave his classic that everything is affordable right now and people are in a golden age. We'll talk about what's actually happening with the economy. The chairman of the Federal Reserve, who, by the way, Trump appointed during his first term, Jerome Powell, he gave a speech where he outlined the truth about the housing market, about inflation and about the job market, and none of it is good. We're in a stagflation period right now that we hadn't really seen since the 1970s. We should also talk about the Indiana State Senate rejecting Donald Trump's attempt to gerrymander in Indiana. Even close, a 31 to 19 vote rejecting the gerrymander bill that Trump pushed forward. And this was after Donald Trump, the Heritage Foundations Political Action, AAM and others threatened that we will not fund anything in Indiana. Will strip you of all federal funding from roads to disaster relief if you don't go along with Trump's gerrymander plan. And the Indiana State Senate said, no way, we're not doing it. Donald Trump tried yet again to to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James, just as he tried last week after it was dismissed the week before that, and that was rejected by a grand jury yet again. This time he went to Alexandria, where he previously went to Norfolk in Virginia. Rejected in both grand juries week after week. They say that you can indict a ham sandwich. Well, not if you're the Trump doj. And we should talk about Democratic lawmakers and Epstein survivors coming together to demand an audit of the Epstein files about what, if anything, has been deleted, destroyed, removed by the Trump regime in advance of the deadline, which is coming up in just a few days. That's seven days, six days to release the Epstein files based on the Epstein Transparency act that was signed into law. The survivors have no faith at all that Donald Trump's actually going to release the actual files. Talk about that and more. This is the Midas Touch Podcast. I'm Ben Meisel is joined by Brett and Jordi. How are you doing?

[Brett]

Well, it's great to be here, brother. It's great to be here. Midas Mighty. Thank you to everybody for watching this live on YouTube. Thank you to everybody for listening on all the various podcast platforms. Really appreciate it. What a great day for democracy and a great day for justice. Like, dare I even say that out loud? I don't want to jinx anything, but I think today is one of those days where you could have a lot of optimism about where things are going. And as we've looked also to the past few days and seen Donald Trump's decline and the way he is struggling to sell his agenda to the American people, as so many Americans and so many people from his own party are clearly turning against him, I think what we're seeing right now is the Trump administration used to be an insurgent force. They used to be the ones who were able to bully all of these Republicans across the country and get their way. They were kind of similar to the Tea Party in that respect, which came up during the Obama administration. But now I think we're seeing that this Trump administration has become the establishment and they are the establishment that people absolutely despise. And the American people and even many Republicans now are not buying what they are selling. I'm excited to get into all of that on this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. As I said, it's great to be here. Jordi, what's the latest?

[Jordi]

What's up, brothers? What's up, Midas? Mighty. I'm stoked to get into today's show. One quick push here. We're going to hit 5.7 million subscribers really soon on the YouTube channel. So please hit subscribe. It's totally free to subscribe, and we're making a really strong case here to hit 5.8, potentially 6 million if folks dig their heels in by 2026. So hit that subscribe button on the YouTube channel. Let's get into today's show. Benji, where are we starting?

[Ben Meisel]

Let's take you into one of the hearings that took place in the House of Representatives where Kristi Noem was a witness the of Homeland Security Secretary. She was supposed to be there for the full hearing, but after a few of the Democratic Congress members questioned her, she just walked out and left. And she claimed she had another engagement to be at, which we now learned was also false. She said that she was going to a FEMA Review Council meeting, but who would even run that thing at this point? They pretty much got rid of everybody at fema. Let me show you what happened before she decided that that she would leave. And she was getting very nervous. And that's one of the main reasons that she. You had a Democratic Congress member from Rhode island friend of mine, Seth Magaziner, did an incredible job with this cross exam, probably the cross exam of the year, coming in perfect time for Christmas and the holiday season. Watch as Magaziner confronted Kristi Noem about the Border Patrol and ICE going after US Military veterans and deporting people who have taken bullets for the United States. Let's play this.

[Representative Seth Magaziner]

Madam Secretary, how many United States military veterans have you deported?

[Narrator/Announcer]

Sir, we have not deported U.S. citizens or military veterans.

[Representative Seth Magaziner]

I don't believe you served in the military. I haven't either. But I think you and I can agree that as Americans, we owe everything to those who have served our country in uniform, particularly those who have served in combat. Do you agree with that, sir?

[Narrator/Announcer]

I believe that people that are in this United States, that are citizens, have legal status here.

[Representative Seth Magaziner]

Madam Secretary, we are joined on zoom by a gentleman named Se Jun Park. He is a United States army combat veteran who was shot twice while serving our country in Panama in 1989. Like many veterans, he struggled with PTSD and substance abuse after his service. He was arrested in the 1990s for some minor drug offenses. Nothing serious. He never hurt anyone besides himself. And he's been clean and sober for 14 years. He is a combat veteran, a Purple Heart recipient. He has sacrificed more for this country than most people ever have. Earlier this year, you deported him to Korea, a country he hasn't lived in since he was seven years old. Will you join me in thanking Mr. Park for his service to our country?

[Narrator/Announcer]

Sir, I'm grateful for every single person that has served our country and follows our laws.

[Representative Seth Magaziner]

Can you please tell Mr. Park why you deported him?

[Narrator/Announcer]

Every one of them needs to be enforced.

[Representative Seth Magaziner]

But you understand that many veterans struggle with ptsd. Many veterans struggle with. With substance abuse challenges. This man took two bullets for our country. Will you. You have broad authority, by the way, as secretary to issue humanitarian parole to. To do deferred action. Will you commit to at least looking at Mr. Park's case to see if you can help him find a pathway back to this country that he sacrificed so much for?

[Narrator/Announcer]

I will absolutely look at his case, but I want you to remember.

[Representative Seth Magaziner]

Madam Secretary, the man behind you. Please stand up, sir. His name is Jim Brown from Troy, Missouri. He is a Navy combat veteran who served our country in the Gulf War. He's married to a woman named Donna who came to our country legally from Ireland when she was 11 years old. She has lived here for 48 years because of you. Jim's wife, Donna, has been imprisoned for the last four months. She did not come here illegally, and she has never committed any crime other than writing two bad checks totaling $80 ten years ago. She is currently in prison and facing deportation. Ms. Noem, will you thank Mr. Brown for his service to our country?

[Narrator/Announcer]

Thank you, Mr. Brown, for your service.

[Representative Seth Magaziner]

Now, what possible explanation can there be for locking up his wife for four months when she has committed no crime other than writing a couple of bad checks for $80?

[Narrator/Announcer]

Sir, it is not my prerogative, my latitude, or my job to pick and choose which laws in this country get in.

[Representative Seth Magaziner]

Have broad discretion as the secretary. You can follow, you can issue, you can do all kinds of things, but you're choosing not to. Will you commit again to just reviewing Donna's case and reuniting this combat veteran with his beloved wife who also loves this country?

[Narrator/Announcer]

I will review the case.

[Ben Meisel]

So then after that line of questioning, Kristi Noems decision was, that was so good.

[Brett]

I gotta say, Representative Magaziner, that was the best line. Because we always have people say when we show these clips, why don't they have, like, the materials there to say, okay, well, you're lying. Bringing out the iPad with the individual on the iPad, the veteran who was deported was fricking masterful. And then following it up with, okay, now look behind you. Here's another veteran who's been affected by this. And getting Kristi Noem on camera to say, thank you for your service. Can you thank this man for his service? Can you thank him for service? I thought that was so brilliant. Reminded me of, like, you know, those talk shows when, like, you know, there was like, Adam Scott on the actor who was on, like, I forget what talk show.

[Ben Meisel]

I.

[Brett]

Maybe it was like Kimmel or Fallon or something, and he's talking about how much he loves Mark Hamill. And then they go, well, you're never going to believe this. Turn around, and Mark Hamill comes out. It was like an infant verse of the surprise guest. Okay, well, we got the iPad proof.

[Representative Seth Magaziner]

Boom.

[Brett]

Mike dropped. That was like, just the most brilliant work by the congressman right there.

[Ben Meisel]

And she couldn't filibuster out of it. Just the way the questions were crafted, right? And when she tried to, boom, he just moved on right away. Then you had Congresswoman McIver from New Jersey, who's under a felony indictment from this Trump regime, when she showed up at one of the detention centers in her congressional district or right by her congressional district district based on these kind of fabricated charges by the doj. So she was questioning Kristi Noem. And you'll see Kristi Noem just continues to talk over her. Here, watch this.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Thank you. Secretary Noem, do you agree that using DHS resources to target members of Congress is an abuse of power? Excuse me. Would you say that. You would have heard me. If you stop talking. You listen to my questions. Do you agree that using DHS resources to target members of Congress is an abuse of power? We are not doing that. We are out there enforcing the law, doing our work, and we are allowing over. Of course, we're not going to get any more than the chairman. I yield back.

[Ben Meisel]

Gentlelady yields back.

[Brett]

I now recognize the gentleman from Oklahoma.

[Ben Meisel]

Mr. Keane, for five minutes, show you. The questioning by Democratic Congress member Dan Goldman from New York, and his congressional district is right by the federal immigration court where immigrants have been showing up for their asylum hearings. And as they show up for their asylum hearings, meaning they're here lawfully, they're going through an asylum process, they're snatched in the courthouse by ICE agents, and then they're thrown into these detention centers, and then they're disappeared. Let's just play this clip of his questioning of Noem.

[Congressman Dan Goldman]

Secretary Noem, let's talk about the law. Do you agree that asylum is a lawful pathway to immigrate to this country? Yes or no?

[Narrator/Announcer]

There's an asylum program. Yes, in.

[Congressman Dan Goldman]

All right, so immigrants, then, with ongoing asylum applications are legally in this country, Correct?

[Narrator/Announcer]

Excuse me? I'm sorry.

[Congressman Dan Goldman]

Your question was immigrants with ongoing asylum applications are legally in this country.

[Narrator/Announcer]

There are individuals in this country that have applications that.

[Congressman Dan Goldman]

And they are legally here because it's a lawful pathway, Right?

[Narrator/Announcer]

It's a lawful pathway.

[Congressman Dan Goldman]

Okay, so if your department then deports anyone with an ongoing asylum application, you are violating the law. Correct?

[Narrator/Announcer]

Joe Biden left us with.

[Congressman Dan Goldman]

I'm not asking about Joe Biden. I'm asking you a specific question. If your department deports anyone with an ongoing asylum application, you are violating the law. Is that correct?

[Narrator/Announcer]

It was greatly violated when they allowed.

[Congressman Dan Goldman]

I'm asking you people to come.

[Narrator/Announcer]

I'm asking you asylum applicants.

[Congressman Dan Goldman]

Why are you filibustering? Why can't you answer the question? It's a simple question.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Your President.

[Congressman Dan Goldman]

If your department deports anyone with an ongoing asylum application, you are violating the law. Isn't that correct?

[Narrator/Announcer]

The asylum program was broken under the.

[Congressman Dan Goldman]

Mr. Chairman, I will reclaim my time. She's not answering the question.

[Ben Meisel]

And.

[Congressman Dan Goldman]

But the obvious answer is that, yes, if you follow a lawful pathway, asylum is a lawful pathway. If you have an open Asylum case. You are here lawfully, but the problem that we are seeing around the country is that you are not following the law. Don't tell us to change the law. If you don't like the asylum system, you change the asylum law. Bring it to us. We'll work with you. I think it needs to be changed. But you can't just decide that you're not going to follow the law and asylum is a law and deport people who have ongoing applications. Unfortunately, that is exactly what's happening. It's happening across the street from my office right in New York City.

[Ben Meisel]

Then Kristi Noem says, I gotta go, I'm leaving, I gotta go. And then she blames that she's got some other hearing. I'm so busy. I've got this FEMA hearing which is not actually happening. That's where I'm. I gotta leave. Well, also, let's just assume the hearing was. The FEMA hearing was happening. Why wouldn't you just schedule. You're the Department of Homeland Security secretary. Why wouldn't you schedule it for after? Like she created this conflict to get out. If she was doing horrible and then she was doing the horrible and then she left, scared, panicked. Here, play this clip.

[Narrator/Announcer]

When she leaves dollars immediately and we're responding immediately to our people. I have to actually leave this hearing early because the FEMA Review Council is giving their report today on suggestions for changes to fema.

[Ben Meisel]

Thank you for not taking your foot off the gas.

[Narrator/Announcer]

I have to coach her it, but I will be leaving soon to have to go do that.

[Ben Meisel]

And then if you were wondering.

[Representative Seth Magaziner]

The.

[Ben Meisel]

MAGA guy who's chairing it. Thank you for not taking your foot. Thank you for not taking your foot off the gas. On that. Just be very clear. You are Congress. You are your own article in the Constitution. And you know which article you are in the Constitution about how the framers viewed your role. Your number one, your Article one, the executive branch that Noam is a part of, that's number two. So as Article 1, the founders believed that you in Article 1 would protect your turf, not say to Article 2 while they're admitting to violations of the law at your committee that we all see that Article one would go, you know what? Yeah, just make up something and get out of here. Skedaddle. And that's exactly what we saw there. And that's one of the issues. There's many with MAGA. Mike Johnson, when he has forfeited what Article 1 is the check and the balance such that Steve Bannon says that thankfully, the congress is now like the Russian Duma. Like, it's like the, it's like the Russian. It's like the Russian Congress. Here, play this. Brett Jordy, what do you say?

[Brett]

We're not playing a clip. Are you coming?

[Ben Meisel]

Just play around the clip right now.

[Brett]

No, I mean, listen, all I do.

[Ben Meisel]

Is say play the clip all day. That rather than asking questions. I just think so.

[Brett]

With Kristi Gnome, when like you pull. Like if Kristi Gnome was a dollar. Yeah, if Christine. Almost like a wind up doll. All these people in the Trump administration, it's like. But the Biden administration. But the Biden administration with Bennett. Play the clip, play the clip. But you know what, as an introvert, I respect the move a little bit. Like you make the other time commitment, you know, at the same time, because you got to get coffee with this person, but you only want to keep it to a half hour. You can't go too long. Oh, I could do the half hour, but I have this other thing at 3 o'.

[Representative Seth Magaziner]

Clock.

[Brett]

So, you know, I'm just, I'm just messing with around. They have nothing to fall back on here. They just constantly go, biden, Biden, Biden, Biden, Biden for everything. And you can make the argument that Biden should have done a lot more for the border, especially early on in his presidency. You could, you could certainly say that there were a lot of external factors at the time that I think a lot of people look over, which is the fact that migration was a fricking mess after Covid and there were all these external factors happening. And we just came after the Trump administration, which was so horrific in handling every single situation. And then the Biden administration did try to take many steps to try to fix this issue in a legal way. There was legislation, bipartisan legislation, as we all know now, was worked with with the most conservative members of the Republican Party in order to fix these issues, in order to fix issues of asylum, in order to get more immigration judges, in order to really fix this with a long term plan. What did Donald Trump and the Republicans do? They torpedoed it. They blew it to pieces because they wanted to help Donald Trump's election chances. And guess what? I guess congratulations. You screwed up the United States in order to get Donald Trump elected and screw up the United States even further. Congrats. Okay. But there was actual legislation going on there that would have handled the situation legally. But what this administration, what this regime has done is they've come in, kick the door down like they're like the Kool aid man or something. And they've just thrown everything off the desks. They're just causing all of this chaos. And they're not doing anything by the law. So, you know, there's not going to be anything durable and anything that's actually long lasting about anything they're doing here other than the terror that they have wrought on the United States of America. Because frankly, I don't think they're intelligent enough to actually get legislation passed. I don't think they're patient enough to get legislation passed. They just try to do everything by executive order and by fiat. And that's just not a way that you run the United States of America. It's a failed strategy and it's going to, to fail. It's already failing. But we're seeing the consequences of this strategy.

[Jordi]

Exactly. And look, it has to be said, that was one of the single worst performances that I've ever seen at any of these hearings. Like the fact that she was just like, I have another thing that I forgot.

[Brett]

Got this other thing.

[Jordi]

I gotta go. I'll see y' all later. I mean, that, that was the most pathetic, pathetic thing. I mean, put that in the history books, folks. And then you get Kristi Gnome up there, right? She loves the cosplay, right? She, she's a firefighter one day, she's a construction worker the other day she's on border patrol the next day. Costumes, you can't cosplay competency. And Kristi Noem got exposed up there. And props to Dan Goldman for just being like, yo, I'm not talking about Joe Biden. You guys are the ones in charge right now. Let's have the conversation here. And just the reflex to just, it's for Noam to be like, but Biden, But Biden. I just love that, that, that Goldman was like, I don't, I'm not talking about him. Let's have the conversation, you and I, considering you are the one in charge right now.

[Ben Meisel]

Do you remember when the Republicans brought Hillary Clinton in for the Benghazi hearings? Remember that? Remember she sat there, no breaks, 12 hours, answered every question, never said, I gotta go, I've got another commitment. Sat there for 12 hours and made every one of the Republicans asking her questions look like utter fools. Now ask yourself this. Similarly, Special counsel Jack Smith has said over and over again, I want to testify publicly about all of the lies that you were telling about me. You have unlimited time maga. You all want to go on your state regime, media, which calls itself fox, and you want to say that I was doing illegal things when Donald Trump's Mar a Lago resort was searched with a valid search warrant. I can discuss what we found. I can discuss the case. I can talk about the January six prosecutions against Donald Trump before they were all dismissed because of the election. Or Judge Cannon in Florida dismissing the Mar A Lago case because she was in. She was a Trump bootlicker and didn't follow the law and never got to its final stage on the appeals process because of the 2024 election. He's saying, you want to attack me? Unlimited time. I'll testify publicly before the world. And what do they say in the House and the Senate, all those tough MAGA people? And I'm saying that sarcastically. No, no, no, no, no. We cannot do that.

[Brett]

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Ben Meisel]

We cannot do that.

[Jordi]

Right.

[Ben Meisel]

What happens when in the civil case against Donald Trump relating to January 6, documents are subpoenaed from the FBI about Trump's involvement in the January 6 insurrection. What does Trump do? Executive privilege. Executive privilege week. We. I'm not going to produce any documents at all. Isn't it something that the Republicans keep. Oh, oh, and by the way, Office of Management and Budget. Russ Vote, right. He's refused to appear before the Budget Committee, the Office of Management and Budget, the guy who authored Project 2025. This never happened before, ever. That the head of the budget from the executive office doesn't show up before the Budget Committee. And Mag is like, yeah, why would we have the budget guy show up before us? Because he's the budget guy. That's why he's supposed to show up. So just ask yourself over and over again. And this is in a non. I'm speaking in a nonpartisan way. The Republicans are constantly hiding and manipulating and people like Jack Smith and Hillary Clinton, you may disagree with them, you may like them, but they're certainly doing it publicly. Right? Oh, and do you remember Hunter when Hunter wanted to do it publicly? Hunter showed up after all the Hunter stuff, right after, you know, the Marjorie Taylor Greene showing, the nudes of Hunter and Jim Jordan and James Comer. Hunter said, I'm here. Let's go and do it. I'll sit here as long as you want. No, no, no, no, no. We're going to, we're going to do that in a deposition, privately. And you almost never heard them talk about that deposition again. Right? Because they look bad. This is what we see over and over again. And this is the tactics of Putin and Russia and propagandists. It's why we Got to bring transparency to this process.

[Jordi]

Yeah.

[Brett]

The biggest enemy of propagandists is the truth. And that's why they do everything they can in order to hide the truth from the people. And it's why their control over the platforms that disseminate the truth is so important to these folks. It's the reason why Elon Musk was willing to burn so much money to purchase Twitter because he gets to dictate the algorithms, the flow of the information. And MAGA thrives when they're in charge of the algorithms and the flow of the information. That's why we see a lot of this consolidation happening in the media. And these Trump friendly people, I'll be kind in saying it that way, you see them taking over a lot of these major media companies companies because they want to control the flow of the information getting to the people. And so it's one thing for these folks to go on X or whatever and talk about there's this major threat, it's an tifa, and, you know, spread all the various lies and conspiracy theories that they spread every day. But once they're actually confronted in a public forum about these things, you realize that there is nothing behind their statements or whatsoever. They have nothing at all to back it up. You see that the emperor has no clothes in real time as you're watching them talk about this sort of stuff. So today there was another hearing down the hall from the Kristi Noem hearing. And one of these FBI officials, one of these Trump goons was being watched.

[Ben Meisel]

The lead guy over the Antifa task force. Like the guy.

[Brett]

Yeah, yeah, like the antifa task force. So ridiculous. So this is like the guy and his whole thing has been, you know, forget all those reports that we removed from the government websites that actually showed the American people the data, the accurate data, and said that most of the extremism and most of the violent acts in this country have been committed under the guise of right wing violence. Forget all that data. Forget all those facts. The real biggest threat to the United States is antifa. And when Congressman Benny Thompson decided to confront him about antifa. Very basic facts about antifa. Okay, so who is antifa? Where? Where is antifa? Tell me anything about Antifa. You watched this whole facade, this whole propaganda regime crumble before your eyes. This was one of the most stunning clips that I think I've ever seen in a congressional hearing. You got to check this out. Executive order. Domestic terrorist organization, Antifa. That's our primary concern right now.

[Unidentified Reporter]

All right? That's what President Trump did What does the FBI say?

[Brett]

We share the same view. When you look at the data right now, you look at the domestic terrorist threat that we're facing right now, what I see from my position is that's the most immediate violent threat that we are facing on the domestic side.

[Unidentified Reporter]

So where is the ANTIFA headquartered?

[Ben Meisel]

What we're doing right now with the organization.

[Unidentified Reporter]

Where in the United States does ANTIFA exist? If it's a terrorist organization and you've identified it as number one, we are.

[Brett]

Building out the infrastructure right now.

[Unidentified Reporter]

So what does that mean? I'm just. We're trying to get the information. You say ANTIFA is a terrorist organization. Tell us as a committee, how did you come to that? Where do they exist? How many members do they have in the United States as of right now?

[Brett]

Well, that's very fluid. It's ongoing. For us to understand that the same, no different than Al Qaeda and isis.

[Unidentified Reporter]

No, no, I don't want you. I'll ask one question, sir. I just want you to tell us if you said ANTIFA is the number one domestic terrorist organization operating in the United States. I just need to know where they are. How many people. I don't want a name. I don't want anything like that. Just how many people have you identified with the FBI that ANTIFA is made of?

[Brett]

Well, the investigations are active.

[Donald Trump]

Sir.

[Unidentified Reporter]

You wouldn't come to this committee and say something you can't prove. I know. I know you wouldn't do that, but you did.

[Jordi]

Incredible. And you know why? It's the simplicity of all that. I mean, shout out Benny Thompson. Man, that was awesome. And he was just saying, where are they? Are they in the room with us right now? Where are they located? Like, what have you identified? I mean, where does the Trump regime find these absolute creatures, man? He couldn't even respond. Bond. It was masterfully played by Benny Thompson.

[Ben Meisel]

Right there.

[Jordi]

Shout out Benny Thompson, Brett.

[Brett]

Benny Thompson did a great job. I love how he's just like. The guy goes, we have all this data and we've compiled all this data, and Antifa is the biggest. Okay, well, let's start with the day. Let's go through the data. Where are they? Who are they? Where are they, bae? We're structuring something. I forget what he even said, but it's like, what are you talking. You just said you had the data. You can't answer a single question. And so that, to me, exposes everything about these people. And I think every single day, you're seeing more and more people break away from this Party, this Trump regime, this kind of whole entire MAGA takeover of the party, you're seeing it crumble. As I said, they've kind of become the establishment and they're now seeing an insurgency. And there's going to be a fight within the Republican Party coming up which is going to be, you know, it's going to get pulled further to the right and go into like that weirdo Nick Fuentes, like Tucker world, or are they going to be pulled back to some sort of normalcy? I think that's an internal battle that they are facing and we'll be monitoring here, but just on an objective, nonpartisan level. You should be able to answer those very simple questions. But it's clear that they are manipulating data. They don't want the American people to know the truth. And when they're asked very basic questions, they crumble because they are lying to you. And lying you should, no matter what party you are of, you should be able to look at that and say, that's not okay with me. I don't like our officials to be lying to my face like that. We got a lot more to talk about in this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. We got Indiana Republicans rebuking Donald Trump's backed maps with the redistricting efforts. Despite all of the death threats, the bomb threats, everything that Trump has unleashed on these people, they rejected him. We get a lot of legal news and so much more here on this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. Remember to subscribe to this YouTube channel. We are on our way to 6 million subscribers. Make sure to subscribe to the Mighty Stitch podcast on audio, on Apple, podcasts on Spotify, wherever you get your audio podcast. And make sure to check us out on Substack, on Patreon and all the things. And thank you so much for your support. We're going to be right back after this very quick break. Don't go anywhere. Ever stare at a wall of wine at the grocery store and feel like you're taking the sats? Yeah, it's confusing. I've got enough going on juggling work, the news and trying to not lose my mind. I don't need a wine anxiety spiral at the supermarket. 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[Jordi]

Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors links in description about the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey and there are, please let them know we sent you Some great deals over there. Benji, where to next?

[Ben Meisel]

I like the description. Looks very sexy on the stove.

[Brett]

It does look sexy on the stove. I get a lot of compliments on.

[Jordi]

That reads, in fact.

[Brett]

Yeah, well, because you know why? Because it comes from a place of passion. Last night I used the Hexclad. Last night I made a pen, a vodka. I made the sauce in the Hexclad. I cooked everything in the Hexclad. And honestly, like, it's. I don't order in from the Italian places anymore because I. I cook it better. I'm not trying to brag over here, but the Hexclad gets the job done in a really good way.

[Ben Meisel]

You know who's on the hot seat? Who was getting grilled?

[Jordi]

Oh, wow.

[Brett]

Transition alert.

[Ben Meisel]

Caroline Levitt was. That's all I got for you. So these press conferences are just, like, they've exceeded Pink Dress Lady North Korea. Like, they're in a whole nother, like, atmosphere beyond Baghdad Bob. It's its own thing. So people will be like, oh, like, in the future. Like, were you. Was that like a Levitt? Like. And again, this would be. This would be parody and SNL scripts, and people would actually laugh if it wasn't actually real and harming so many people's lives. And so today, Caroline Levitt, disastrous press conference. You come up with another word other than disastrous for me, but, like, it was actually, like, a freaking disaster. And so she's. And by the way, hat tip to the press, like, they're actually asking good questions now. Like, they're helping each other. They're working as one, and they really are asking good questions. Not all of them, let me be very clear. Like, a lot of them are still awful, but this White House group, by and large, there's a good group of them who are asking good questions and finally being supportive of each other. And it seems that they've had enough as well. So one thing that she's asked about is, you know, Donald Trump keeps walking out with these bandages, like, on his hand, like, over and over and over again. Like, his hand, like, is, like, discolored, and he keeps walking out with these bandages. So, like, clearly something's happening. He's getting IV or injections quite frequently, and his hand is discolored. As I've mentioned, it looks like his hand was put in, like, a piranha tank. And he goes out there and he tries to hide it. And so, Caroline, why is he wearing these bandages on his hand all the time? Let's play.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Yes, in the blue, Caroline. Yes, go ahead. Thank you. The President's been spotted out and about a number of times with bandages on his hands. Could you please explain what that is about? Secondly, he noted on Truth Social the other day that he had acknowledged three cognitive tests. Could you please clarify when those tests took place, Ms. I can do that at a later date. I obviously don't have that in front of me. The President has spoken about that quite extensively throughout the years. As for the bandages on the hand, we've also given you an explanation for that. In the past, the President is literally constantly shaking hands. The Oval Office is like Grand Central Terminal. He is meeting with more people than any of you even know about on a daily basis. He's also on a daily aspirin regimen, which is something his physical examinations has said in the past as well, which can contribute to that bruising that you see.

[Ben Meisel]

The bruising is because of lots of handshakes and aspirin. Got it. Okay, let's just, let's just move on there, because that made a ton of sense. I'm being sarcastic, of course. Then we'll talk about all these clips. So I'll ask Brett and Jordy their reaction. But first, Caroline Levitt is asked, you know, about inflation, because Caroline Levitt, during this presser, kept on saying inflation is down. It's down, on average, it's down over the year. And it's not. It's up, it's up. And CPI is around 3% year over year. So 3% higher than Biden right now, when Trump's promise is that he would bring the prices lower than Biden. And now it's 3% higher and going up. So Levitt's like, no, no, no, no, it's 2.5%. And then the reporter's like, no, no, it's 3%. And Levitt's like, no, no, no, no, no. My piece of paper says 2.5, so I'm just gonna go with what is on this piece of paper? The three. Here, play this clip first.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Very quickly, clarifying Caitlin's question, you acknowledged that CPI in January when you took office was 3%. And in September, the last month for which we have data, it was also 3%. So inflation, so it's 2.5%. Not in September, it was 2.5%. The average CPI right now, I have it in front of me. In President Trump's first eight months in office, inflation as measured by the overall consumer price index has slowed to a 2.5 average pace. This is down from the 2.9% inherited in January. January is one month.

[Ben Meisel]

Okay, just, again, just my piece of paper says it, so I'm just going to go and say it.

[Brett]

Okay.

[Ben Meisel]

Wrong. And then Caitlin Collins from CNN asks a good question. Okay. If the economy is so strong, it's doing great, everyone's thriving right now, okay, why, when Donald Trump spoke at that weird casino banquet hall at Mount Airy Casino in Pennsylvania in front of like, 150 people, why did he tell them that they should only purchase, like, two pencils and two dolls and that people in China should get more pencils and dolls than people in the United States, which is exactly what Donald Trump said. Why is that, Caroline? Should we be rationing pencils and dolls in a way that China is able to get more pencils and dolls? Here, play this clip.

[Congressman Dan Goldman]

Two questions.

[Narrator/Announcer]

I have one on Venezuela to follow up, but first on affordability. Since we were talking about the economy at the beginning, if the economy is as strong as the President has said it is, then why is he telling parents two weeks before Christmas that they should only buy two or three dolls for their children? Ms. Look, what the President is saying is that if we want products made right here in America, if we want them to be made from American small businesses, which is a large part of the reason the President has effectively implemented tariffs, then we're going to have better quality products right here in the United States. Maybe you'll pay a dollar or two more, but you will get better quality and you'll be supporting your fellow Americans by buying American. And that's, that's what the President was saying. Again, with respect to affordability, every economic metric Caitlin and I wish you would report more on, it does, in fact, show that the economy is getting better and brighter than where it was under the previous administration. I will repeat.

[Brett]

No, it's not.

[Ben Meisel]

No, it's not. And again, what Donald Trump meant by that is that it's going to be higher quality products made in America. Okay, let's just play what Donald Trump said at the casino banquet hall.

[Donald Trump]

The one thing you need, you need steel. You know, you can give up certain products, you can give up pencils. That's under the China policy. You know, every child can get 37 pencils. They only need one or two. You know, they don't need that many. But you always need, you always need steel. You don't need $37 for your daughter. Two or three is nice, but you don't need $37.

[Ben Meisel]

So, okay, that's what he said. Again, objectively, you could judge that for yourself, but that's what he said. And then finally we learned that Donald Trump gave China access to the H200 Nvidia chips, which for national security purposes was never been granted to China. And Trump just gave it to China. Just put on a social media post, I'm giving the H200 chips to China. And Trump said he's doing it for dollar sign, 25 percentage sign, which I guess means 25% or $25. It's unclear because there's typo written. Let's just assume 25%. Okay, 25% of what China's gonna pay us 25% for the. Is China the buyer? And they're gonna pay us 25% for the chip. And after they buy one chip, you think they're gonna buy the second? Wouldn't they just buy one, take it and then give it to Huawei and their own company who's building the same chips, and then they'll just build it themselves and they'll accelerate their program. Like, don't you think that. And that's why we've previously restricted China from getting these H200 chips. So much so that on the day Trump announced he was giving China the H200 chips, the DOJ prosecuted individuals for trying to serve as middle men or middle people to deliver the H200 chips to China. This is the most highly prized American national security IP and we're just going to give it to China. Do you know, by the way, what China did right away? Do you think they said, excellent, we're going to do an order of all of the chips? No, they did exactly what I said. They said, we'll buy one or two of them. They immediately said, thank you, but we're going to put controls on what can be purchased by Chinese companies and we'll just take a few of them and then we'll give it to Huawei and Huawei will make it. So. Caroline Levitt was asked, why is he doing that? Like, why? Why? Why does that help the United States?

[Unidentified Reporter]

Philip?

[Ben Meisel]

Thank you, Caroline. On these advanced Nvidia H200 chips, why is the president willing to allow China to have access to one of America's chief technological advantages?

[Narrator/Announcer]

Look, I will tell you just a couple of things. The president put out his own statement on this, which I do think highlights his exact thinking. What you see from the president on Truth Social is most of the time what you hear from the president behind closed doors. Privately, he told President Xi that we will. Nvidia will only be shipping H200 products to approved customers in China under conditions that will allow for continued strong national security. The administration continues to maintain a strict export control regime, and we are ensuring that the Blackwell chip and other advanced technologies stay right here in America. And these H200 chips will only be sent to China after undergoing a security inspection here in the United States.

[Ben Meisel]

And who's going to staff those security inspections when we fired the competent people in the government, number one, is it going to be people like Lindsey Halligan who can't even figure out how to walk through the hallways of a courtroom? But a version of that in national security, who's it going to be? Is it going to be Pete Hegset crew? Okay, and did you realize that our statement, like, literally was just a bunch of gibberish? We're going to give it to them for their national security. For our national security. We're giving it to them for national. What are you even talking, like, just a bunch of gibberish, Brett. Jordi, you saw all of those clips. Who was a worse. Who gave a worst performance? Kristi Noem, that FBI agent, or. Or Caroline Levitt right there?

[Brett]

I think this one's a wash, Ben. I think. I think they all take the. Take the top title or maybe the bottom title. I don't know how you consider it here, but, like, it's just, like, I hate to say it, but these are just fundamentally broken, evil people who are pushing things to support a fundamentally broken and evil regime. And they're also often just incredibly stupid. Like, we're seeing Trump in this China situation, particularly in real time, in public, on social media, on television, like, negotiating against himself. Like, I thought the whole concept behind the tariffs was this was going to give the United States strength and we were going to be able to bully these countries into submission and they were going to do exactly what we wanted because they are so threatened by Donald Trump's tariffs. The Opposite is happening. We're panicking. The United States is panicking. Our farmers are panicking. Our government is panicking because they're seeing the livelihoods of people like our farmers go down in the toilet because of these tariffs. And now they are rushing to try to patch up the holes that they've caused. So they're going, oh, we need soybeans. Soybeans. What are we going to do about the soybeans problem that we cause China? Do you want our chips that we need for our nationals? Do you want our most advanced AI chips that we have that you are desperate for, that the only reason you are behind in this AI race is because you don't have these. Please take them and please give us a fraction of the soybeans that you were giving us before any of this even happened. Like, the stupidity is just crazy to me, and it's really a danger to America's national security in the process. And like I said, it's damaging the livelihoods of so many Americans all to support this failed tariff strategy that we are seeing. Just putting tariffs on everything without any sort of thought behind it. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous. It's one thing if you want to do targeted tariffs, and by the way, if you did targeted tariffs, you would probably target industries like this in China to ensure that the United States has a competitive advantage. You wouldn't go, here, take all of our chips. Like, just none of this is making any sense whatsoever. And the more that Caroline Levitt continues to hide behind this, Donald Trump's hands are just the way that they are because he shakes a lot of hands. Every president, every public figure shakes a whole lot of hands. Their hands don't look like Donald Trump's. Their ankles don't look like Donald Trump's and his whole everything. They don't look like that.

[Representative Seth Magaziner]

That.

[Brett]

And so we already know that players.

[Ben Meisel]

You know, like people like. Like people who, like, literally do all this stuff with their hands.

[Brett]

Yeah, maybe get a blister or two. But, like, the more that they try to use these excuses rather than level with the American people about whatever the heck is going on, the more my mind starts racing as to, okay, what is actually wrong with this guy. Like, they're clearly trying to hide something, because if they weren't trying to hide something, they would just be honest with the American people. And the reason that it sounds, like, so ridiculous, all the comments that they say is because it's all bullshit to cover for the truth, which they are too afraid of letting out in public.

[Jordi]

Absolutely and that's where I wanna start here, Brett. Chief propagandist Caroline Levitt. I mean, what a performance. Donald Trump has all of those bruises and bandages because he's out there literally shaking so many hands. You simple minded people, you guys can't even fathom the amount of hands he's out there shaking. And look, this is why I say, at a certain point, I don't even believe what we're doing here is political, plain and simple. I just don't want to be lied to and I don't want to be gaslit. I think it's vital that the American people know what's going on with Donald Trump and his failing health at this point. He's likely at stage five cvi. He's constantly taking cognitive tests, he's falling asleep in every meeting, apparently. And he's got more bruises on his hand than Rocky balboa. After the 12th round. Like, we just demand legitimate explanations. And the best, the American, the best thing that the American people can get is Caroline Levitt up there saying that he has so much bruising because he's shaking a ton of hands. Like, don't piss on my face and tell me it's raining. This should be a bipartisan take. And yet there's, there's an entire political party out there, maga, who loves the piss. They're, please, sir, keep pissing in my face. More piss. It's disgusting. And we here at the Midas Touch Network demand answers, legitimate answers. And just stop gaslighting us, man. It's bonkers to me. By the way, that clipped out of context is going to be a crazy clip for the Internet.

[Ben Meisel]

You know, I don't think the phrases don't piss on my face. I think it's don't piss on my head.

[Jordi]

This is the same thing.

[Ben Meisel]

The face just loves it. More piss.

[Brett]

The face makes it extra graphic.

[Jordi]

Yeah, I know.

[Ben Meisel]

I'm trying to be very grand. Well, look, because if there was some other explanation for it, like, look, every week he goes and gets this IV there because it's helpful, you know, for oxygen or what, whatever it is. Like, if there was a real reason, you know, you'd be like, you know, okay, I, I mean, an explanation that was not serious. Like you'd say, okay, that makes sense. Or that makes sense when you say it was caused by him shaking hands. It's just the stupidest, the stupidest thing. So you can only then give the inference that it is, to your point, that it's bad, bad, bad, that they really need to Hide this. And that's why people have been suggesting, I don't know, one way or another. Again, this is opinion, first amendment protected opinion speech. Let me just be very clear. It's opinion, opinion, opinion. You know, people have been saying, you know, is this a leqembi infusion, which is a small IV line typically placed, you know, it could be either in the arm, but lots of leqembi patients have it right there in the hand. And it's for early Alzheimer's. It's about a one hour infusion every two weeks. That's what it looks like on the hand when you do targets cognitive decline early when you're monitoring for the side effects of this. Specifically, one of the side effects is brain swelling and bleeding. You do MRIs relatively frequently. And you know, and again, I don't know if that's that or the other, but when you go and you say these ridiculous things, I then go to, okay, well, hypothetically, and this is hypothetical, it seems like you're hiding really bad, bad stuff. And then when I watch his speeches, like, do we have the clip of him doing the weave, Brett, where he goes, weave, weave, weave. I'm not sure if we have that one, you know, where I watch these speeches that he gives. Or let's play the one where he talks about the weave. And then there's one where he goes before that. Let's play the one where he goes, referring to the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell. He goes, you know, the deadhead, bed, head, fed, head, bed, head, bed, head, fed, head. Like, I mean, he's not even speaking sentences. It's like a weird doctor suzerain. Let's play that one first.

[Donald Trump]

If we got 3 and 4, we're scheduled to be at 4%, which is pretty amazing because we have a, you know, deadhead, fed, fed hair. I mean, this guy, the head of the Federal Reserve is.

[Ben Meisel]

All right, then play the one where he's at that banquet hall talking about his weave. Let's play it.

[Donald Trump]

So it's November 5th, and it's also, again, it's a thing called tariffs. And I told you I was about to say that, you know, because I love the weave. The weave. You know what the weave is? You go here but being, being, being, being. You always have to get back to the right location, but otherwise they'll criticize you for straying from the speech. If I, by the way, if I read for it's on the teleprompter, you'd all be falling asleep right now.

[Ben Meisel]

There's Nothing funny about that. It's odd, it's strange. I really just want a normal human being to be in that.

[Brett]

You noticed also, like, the defenses that the Trump officials are trying to do for his behavior, like, put forward for his behavior, they all make it all much worse. Like, there was Howard Lutnick. He went out there. He was on like, the. The shows this morning. He was like, the thing about Donald Trump, that guy does not sleep. Barely sleeps a few hours. He sleeps less than I sleep.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Incredible.

[Brett]

First off, that's not. It's never been a flex to me that you don't sleep. Like, that's not healthy. Like, you're probably not doing your best and being your best version of yourself during the day if you don't sleep. But it's also a sign of dementia if you're not getting any sleep. Like. Like, people who have dementia have a lot of difficulty sleeping through the night. And so the more they try to act like this is like, you know, projecting power because the guy gets no sleep every night, the more I'm like, what? Once again, like, what are they trying to cover? Enough of this North Korea style propaganda. Just level with us and tell us the truth about what's going on.

[Ben Meisel]

I'd like him to sleep at night.

[Jordi]

Because then he would.

[Ben Meisel]

Well, who knows? The guys were. I would like him not to be in prison. Let me be very clear. The point I'm making is that we see him sleeping during the day during his meetings. So, you know, I don't know what's.

[Brett]

Better or what goes with the diagnosis. As I was saying, they don't sleep at night, and then you nod off during the day. It's called sundowning. I mean, it happens.

[Ben Meisel]

You see him sleep, but we see him with our own eyes.

[Jordi]

So, by the way, are we just going to gloss over the fact that he called Jerome Powell the Fed hair?

[Brett]

No, that was mumbled. He didn't say word.

[Ben Meisel]

The clip was that that's what he said.

[Jordi]

No, I know, but I'm just saying, like, imagine if Biden did it. Everyone's favorite game, Imagine Biden did that.

[Ben Meisel]

I mean, like, and to Brett and. Yeah, but this whole deliver, you know, and then it's like, okay, dude, this guy's not okay. Like, this guy's like something seriously wrong with this guy, you know? Don't gaslight me. No, there's nothing wrong with him. That's just. That's just what intelligence is.

[Brett]

Leader of the Fed. Who? The bot was signed in by the Biden auto pen. Dude, you nominated him bro. Like, what are we, what are we doing here? What are we doing here?

[Ben Meisel]

All right, let's take our last quick break of the show. When we come back, I want to discuss what happened in Indiana. I want to discuss what happened when Trump tried to re indict New York Attorney General Letitia James. Again, we'll talk about that and much more. A reminder, we are on our way to 6 million subscribers. You may think you're subscribed to the YouTube channel, but you may not actually be subscribed. So just double check that you are subscribed and hit subscribe now. Also subscribe to the Midas Touch audio podcast and it helps us a lot. If you're not an audio listener, just go wherever you get podcasts, audio podcasts, and just search Midas Touch. It helps us a lot on the algorithm there, too. So take our last quick break of the show. We'll be right back.

[Brett]

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[Jordi]

Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors links in description of both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. Benji, we're to Next we are 2.

[Ben Meisel]

Indiana Jordy where the Indiana State Senate rejected Donald Trump's gerrymander plan. And it wasn't even close. The bill was soundly defeated 31 to 19.

[Brett]

Okay, okay.

[Ben Meisel]

A lot of those Republican senators there did not back down after Donald Trump's threats. And Donald Trump repeatedly on a day to day basis threatened those state senators and lawmakers, I mean basically threatened their life. He would put their names out there, he'd call them despicable human beings. He would say horrible things about them. He would talk about challenging them and primarying them. And then you had an basically an arm of the Trump regime, the Heritage Action, which is like the political action arm of the Heritage foundation, which wrote Project 2025 with Trump, wrote President Trump has made it clear to Indiana leaders if the Indiana Senate fails to pass the map, all federal funding will be stripped from the state. Roads will not be paved, guard bases will close, major projects will stop. These are the stakes and every no vote will be to blame. Hashtag, pass the map. Do you remember when Republicans pretended to be about states rights and now remember the don't tread on me flags, Right? I mean, the same way they pretended to be China hawks, remember they were China hawks, they would protect Taiwan, right? Now Donald Trump's like, let's just give China like all of our chips and let's not even allow the president of Taiwan to use airspace in the United States. And let's basically sell out Japan and South Korea to China. All of their frameworks of things that they create, it's just the frameworks of sociopaths. They create the framework to get whatever conclusion that they want. And the conclusion that they want is that they want their own little Kim Jong Un in the United States. They just want an authoritarian, so they want kings. So, so whatever it is that gets them there, that's the framework that they use. It's intellectually dishonest because it's not intellectual. It's just authoritarianism masked as intellectual frameworks. But I can do a whole rant on that another day. So Donald Trump though, after losing and again he also lost his other major endorsements also as well. He endorsed the Republican mayor for Miami and the Democratic candidate, Eileen Higgins won that race. Earlier in the week, you had the Democrat flipping a House District 121 at the State House level in Georgia, where a Democrat lost by like 40 points. Back in 2024, that same Democrat ran again, Eric Gistler, and then won by two points against a MAGA Republican in an ultra red district right there. So Trump's endorsements not carrying the weight really, that they, that they used to would be an understatement. And here was Trump from the Oval Office earlier saying that, yeah, I wasn't really paying attention to Indiana that much. Like, that wasn't really. It wasn't really my thing. I wasn't focused on it. Here, play this.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Indiana, just a few moments ago, the.

[Brett]

Senate there rejected the congressional maps to.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Redistrict in that state. A number of Republicans voted against that redistricting effort. You have spent a lot of time talking about this. The vice President traveled to Indiana. What's your reaction?

[Donald Trump]

Well, we won't have other state. That's the only state. It's funny because I won the. I won Indiana all three times by a landslide. And I wasn't working on it very hard. Would have been nice. I think we would have picked up two seats if we did that. You had one gentleman, the head of the Senate.

[Ben Meisel]

I guess I wasn't working on it really hard. But when you see that, though. And again, Jordi, this is a point you made earlier in the show, too. Not through a lens as like a Democrat or a Republican or an independent. Like, objectively, you worked very hard. You were posting on a daily basis about this. You made this a cause that resulted in many of these Indiana Republican lawmakers getting death threats. The Heritage foundation put out that statement. Don Jr made a similar type of threat. You've made many threats on a daily basis, and now that's your response. And so what I see right there, and trust me, what America's enemies see, who I guess Donald Trump now considers their allies, they see a deranged, delusional loser, a weak, pathetic individual rotting away there who is all over the place, who is an easy mark. That's what they see when they look at that Brett Jordy.

[Brett]

Yeah, it's such a. It's such a disgrace. And what a line. Did he mention, too, that he sent J.D. vance to Indiana multiple times? I forget if he said the question.

[Ben Meisel]

The reporter asked that in the question.

[Brett]

Yeah, yeah, the reporter. Yeah. So it's like they went all in on this and they got humiliated. But that's why I think, I think first off, as Ben was going through, you know, the races that we saw earlier this week, a lot of these gerrymander attempts have been backfiring on the Republicans because they're stupidly through Donald Trump's, you know, big brain over here. They're basing it on the 2024 election results, not taking into the account that Trump's approval and all of the various shifts that happened during that 2024 election have been completely reversed and that Trump has, like a 30% approval rating and most of the country hates them. So they're still relying on these old maps, which no longer exist. So in the case of Georgia, as Ben was saying before, we see that that was an attempt of them to gerrymander that district. In order to gerrymander these districts, they have to take from other districts, so they weaken other districts in order to try to give more support to the Republicans. In certain districts, they end up actually screwing themselves multiple ways. And so that's one of the worry. They call it a dummy mander. It's one of the things that they're also worried about in Texas, despite the fact that they were so brazen that they openly said in all their documentation and emails and messages that we're doing this based on race. This is all a racial gerrymander. The Supreme Court let them go along with it. But a lot of people are saying they're judging this based on Latino voting trends in 2024, but all the Latinos have swung back to the Democrats and in a very big way. So there's a good chance, like in Texas, that they're not even going to pick up all those seats that they thought that they did. And so I think the Indiana Republicans on some level realize that. I think they also realize that the Democrats are not messing around right now. We saw Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom out here in California really taking charge and taking the lead here and let everybody know he put all these Republicans, Republicans on notice. You're going to do this. We're going to fight back. And. And Democrats here in California overwhelmingly passed Prop 50. That could have been a complete humiliation if Newsom went all in on this and it didn't work, but it passed overwhelmingly. It really shifted the narrative. And then you had all these other states standing up saying, okay, if Indiana is going to do that, we're going to do that. You see Virginia saying stuff like that. So there has been this back and forth of this gerrymandering that all started because of what Texas decided to do in the middle of the decade, which is not how you're supposed to do these things. And now they are reaping what they sowed here. You see, even right now, as Donald Trump made those comments to the press, you see people like Donald Trump's own son, Donald Trump Jr. Saying, I guess it's time to overthrow these Republicans in Indiana. They're already talking about ousting these people and replacing them with more MAGA aligned people. But I think one of the things that they haven't quite realized yet in this White House is that people are kind of done with them. Like, even their own party is kind of done with them. Like, you see, even Marjorie Taylor Greene is done with them. They just don't have the clout and the power and the pull that they once had, but they don't quite realize that yet. But every single day we're seeing more and more evidence that that's the case.

[Ben Meisel]

I just want to pass it to Jordy. But I want to say one thing that, that you said there, Brett. It's because they never actually wielded their power. They had the perception of power and what they utilized it for was for the least powerful things. They took power and strength and the perception of it and actually demonstrated the weakness. What Gavin Newsom would always say is that their strength masquerading as its weakness masquerading as strength, rather weakness masquerading a strength. But the reality is, is that now it's weakness masquerading as weakness.

[Brett]

By the way, you know, and sorry, before I pass the choice, if Donald Trump really wanted to deliver a fatal blow to the Democratic Party and really wield his power, and these Republicans really wanted to wield their power, it frankly would have been very simple. All he would have had to do is behave semi normally and actually just do things that the American people care about, like declare a national emergency on high prices and deal with the immigration system, but deal with it in a humane way and deal with deportations of people who actually have criminal records. But they came in like a fricking wrecking ball and damaged everything in their wake. Rather than help with the affordability issue, which was a big reason why people like to say Donald Trump got got elected, you could debate that as you will, but instead of dealing with the affordability issue, Donald Trump decided to increase prices by implementing mass tariffs on every single country. And they've been so brazen, so in your face, so destructive. If they really wanted to wield power, all they had to do was be normal and actually do things that the American people wanted them to do. But they could not control themselves because you're dealing with a bunch of Power hungry maniacs who just aren't doing anything with any sort of tact. They're just throwing everything to the wall and are trying to do this shock and awe approach. And I think we're seeing that that is backfiring instead of helping them.

[Jordi]

Exactly. Look, these people are sociopaths. They're also egomaniacs. And what do sociopaths and egomaniacs need to do? They need to put their fingerprints on everything. Tariffs like this, we're gonna just tariff it all. East wing of the White House buy. We're gonna create a ballroom. These people are nuts. Like, they're out of objectively, they are out of their damn minds. And when it comes to Donald Trump, I mean, just a global embarrassment. He makes the world look bad. It's wild. To me, when he's talking about Indiana, he sounds like a child. He does. He sounds like a kid who was playing a game that lost the game and not to put in these terms. And it was like, you know what? Wasn't even trying just so he could cope. It's really pathetic. When you look at that man, you're like, that's the President of the United States. Supposed to be a serious position. He's one of the most unserious people that I've ever seen.

[Ben Meisel]

You know what frustrating to me and.

[Jordi]

It deeply upsets me as someone who genuinely loves this country, you know, and.

[Ben Meisel]

He, anybody who remains a serious person, he purges. Right. Like he is repugnant to seriousness. And that's a big problem because you even look at his first term, you know, he hires a guy like Jerome Powell. Jerome Powell. Say what you want about the guy. I mean, he's a serious guy with a serious background, you know, as an economist and a central banker who knows what he's doing. And he looks at the data and he presents it based on the mandate of our central bank, our Federal Reserve. And whether you like it or not, this is the data. And when we know the data, we can figure out how we address it and adapt to it. So, you know, what Trump will do when it comes to housing is Trump. We heard this all week. I don't need to play all the clips of it, but, you know, this is what Trump runs on in general. That the housing crisis is caused by migrants, that it's caused by their taking your housing. And that's why housing is not affordable. And so the more you deport, the more affordable housing becomes. I mean, that's absolutely ridiculous. That's not even close to being on the mark. We have A supply side issue when it comes to housing. And the supply of housing has been depleted because private equity is buying up housing, commoditizing it and selling it in a different variation of what we saw during the housing crisis, where they bundled the mortgages. Well, now they buy the property and bundle the mortgages together. They do both. Okay, like why would we just commoditize the mortgages? Let's buy those and let's package them. And they did them on a subprime level. But now they're like, then let's lend to ourselves and then let's put that on our balance sheet and show profits and raise our stock prices. So that was, that was the learning. And when you remove all regulation, they how is a new home, potential buyer, new buyer on the market or any American going to compete with the private equity over. Compete with private equity over the purchase of a home? It's not going to happen. Right. So how would you address housing responsibly? Congress can pass legislation to build more houses. Like build them. You know, there were the, you know, there are those smaller homes that you can build. I forget what they call them, that, you know, the prefab homes. And there's ways to do it. We could, maybe that's the right way, who knows? But like imagine if the $200 billion that went to ICE or the extra hundreds of billions that went to the military industrial complex went to health care and went to housing. In fact, from the National Defense Authorization act, they removed language that dealt with improving the supply side of housing. But just think about if all of these massive resources and the Elon Musk and the Bezos and all of these people, right, that their focus was let's do a national effort to build homes. That's what happened in the 40s and the 50s after world, you know, that was part of the housing boom. But that's not what's happening.

[Jordi]

So to me, that is the most upsetting thing about this is just how great this country could really be if all of these people who wielded all of this power and had all of this money actually, actually wanted to be in this together and actually wanted to do some damn good other than buying their 30th yacht. To me, that is the most disappointing thing about the human experiment here is.

[Brett]

Just like, just the most dangerous thing is that, you know, they blame on migrants, like, like Ben was saying before, they want to say that all of society's ills, all of your problems, whether you can't afford a home, whether things are too Expensive, whether, I don't know, you can't get a girlfriend. Like somehow it all comes down to it's migrants fault, it's immigrants fault, it's black and brown people's fault, it's gay people's fault. And I'm sick of it. I'm sick of J.D. vance wielding his power as the vice president to push disgraceful messaging like that. JD Vance likes to call everything disgusting. And that's disgusting. Well that's fricking disgusting to me, okay? And he well knows better. And to blame all of society's ills on people who have nothing to do with these issues when the real problem at the end of the day are the billionaires for the most part to try to redirect people's attention. People who are begging for help in these situations to say don't look at the billionaires who are screwing you, look at these innocent people over here who don't look like you. That brings back to mind some of the worst parts of world history. And it is a frickin disgrace.

[Jordi]

And that's it. That's it exactly Brett. Right. We've all learned this growing up in school or whatnot and we just think we at this point we should be better off as a society other than continuing to try and scapegoat the other. Like we all know world history, we know US history and yet there's still so many folks in this country that are eagerly awaiting to scapegoat, to scapegoat the next part. It's wild.

[Ben Meisel]

I just want people to watch what a serious individual looks like. I mean like he's just giving the data, right? Like here was Jerome Powell, he's talking about housing. Here's what he says about the current housing situation and whether the interest rate drops, these 25 basis point interest rate drops are going to make any meaningful difference when it comes to the supply of housing. Play this clip.

[Narrator/Announcer]

And just quickly, you mentioned the housing market remains kind of weak with these rate cuts that we've seen. Is there a chance we're going to see more affordability in the housing market so more people can maybe enjoy that part of wealth creation. The average age or median age of a first time homebuyer is now 40 years old. That's the highest on record.

[Brett]

Yeah.

[Jerome Powell]

So the housing market faces some really significant challenges. And I don't know that you know, a 25 basis point decline in the federal funds rate is going to make.

[Ben Meisel]

Much of a difference.

[Jerome Powell]

Difference for people. You know, housing supply is low. Many people have very, very Low, low, low rate mortgages from the pandemic period. And they kept refinancing and caught the really low. So it's made expensive for them to move. And you know, we're, we're a ways away from that changing also. We're just, we haven't built enough housing in the country for a long time. And so a lot of estimates suggest that we just need more housing of different kinds. So housing is going to be a problem and really the tools to address it are we can raise and lower interest rates, but we don't really have the tools to address a secular housing shortage, a structural housing shortage.

[Ben Meisel]

Isn't that so boring? Isn't that boring? Good. It should be. Because he gave you the data and the facts. That's what I want to see. And then we can figure out how do we legislate around it and come up with a problem. Okay, got it. Maybe we need to build more homes. How do we do that? Let's do debates and let's figure out, okay, well how do we improve the supply of housing? Let's figure out, do we need to limit private equity's ownership of housing? Let's debate it. I think we should, but let's have like an honest discussion about it. It's like the same thing with healthcare. You all know from watching this that I support Medicare for all and I support Medicare for All single payer. That's what I want to see. The alternative is on Obamacare with subsidies, which we've seen try to kind of reach this compromise between, you know, extending health care to 20 to 30 million people who didn't have it and the market forces that exists. And there are problems with it. But, but more people seem to support Obamacare than not because they would otherwise die if they don't get their healthcare. But are there ways to improve it? Let's discuss maga Republicans. Do you have another plan? And you can't just keep saying get rid of all insurance companies. When, tomorrow? When are you gonna do this? Give people $2,000? And then what's gonna happen when people have surgeries or need chemo or need to get MRIs or need to do whatever, like the $2,000 that you're not even gonna give. Cause that's a fraud. Also the same way you doge dividend checks. But if you, but, but if you want to bring it up publicly, then maybe we hold hearings about it that the American people can see and we can talk about it and we can make intelligible decisions like that's, that's actually what I want to see, you know, I want to see take place in government. On the other hand, you have Donald Trump roll out the gold card. The Trump gold card. Are you an immigrant with over $5 million at a corporation or individually? $1 million. Well, you can get your hands on a trump gold card today. A direct path for citizenship. So exciting. It's a trump card, it's gold, and it's got Donald Trump's face on it. Everybody, isn't this cool?

[Congressman Dan Goldman]

No.

[Ben Meisel]

What are we. What are we doing here? What is that? That's not. That's not a solve to anything. Who do you think is going to be buying these. These cards? Right. I'll tell you what the plan really is here, though. Do we have the clip of Donald Trump saying from Pennsylvania that he doesn't want people from countries that just goes out and says it? Do we have that clip of him? If we. If we do, let's. Let's play that.

[Donald Trump]

And they've been taken care of. I've also announced a permanent pause on third world migration, including from hellholes like Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia, and many other. I didn't say shithole. You did, Remember? I said that to the senators. They came in, the Democrats, they wanted to be bipartisan, so they came in and they said, this is totally off the record. Nothing mentioned here. We want to be honest, because our country was going to hell and we had a meeting and I say, why is it we only take people from countries, right? Why can't we have some people from Norway, Sweden? Just a few. Let us have a few from. From Denmark. Do you mind sending us a few people? Send us some nice people. Do you mind? But we always take people from Somalia. Places that are a disaster, right? Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime. The only thing they're good at is going after ship.

[Ben Meisel]

He's saying that he doesn't want people from countries that have black people. Right. And he wants people from countries that have white people. And the gold card, just like Donald Trump's history of discriminating against black people, is a way to basically say this card, in Trump's own mind, is a barrier for black and brown people getting into the United States, unless they're sponsored by a corporation, which would usually be run by a white person or a wealthy person, in which case then they get a pass. So that's the. The gold card is like a America version of what, like redlining, Right? But that's the gold, you know, but that. But whatever you call it, it is a. It is a Gimmick and a racist gimmick, but a gimmick versus how do we actually address what's systemically happening with our country? I'll show you one other clip of Jerome Powell where he talks about inflation and jobs and this dual role of, you know, trying to help employment and make more people employed while lowering inflation. That's called the dual mandate of the Fed. Watch what he says here.

[Jerome Powell]

Let's play the official report on the labor market for September. The most recent release showed that the unemployment rate continued to edge up, up reaching 4.4% and that job gains had slowed significantly since earlier in the year. In the near term, risks to inflation are tilted to the upside and risks, risks to employment to the downside. A challenging situation. There is no risk free path for policy as we navigate this tension between our employment and inflation goals.

[Ben Meisel]

Brett Jordi, you see right there, I mean, I just want to show you a serious approach. And that guy's under attack by the Trump regime versus, you know, an unserious. An unserious. I'm not going to play the clips of Howard Lutnick. It's just ridiculous. But it's deeply unserious.

[Brett]

Yeah, the difference between like us and Canada is Canada saw a guy like that in their country and they said, let's make this guy president. You know, he knows the economy. Let's make this guy prime minister rather. And Donald Trump just craps on this guy every single day. And it's also just, you know, Iraq, ironic when you look at, you know, the countries that Donald Trump mentioned, Norway, Sweden, Denmark. If you look at how they feel about Donald Trump, Donald Trump may like those people, but the people from Norway, Sweden and Denmark do not like Donald Trump very much. I mean, just look at this. This is voting information. Like how would people from these countries have voted in 2024? And it is overwhelming. In Norway, Harris 86% Trump 12%. In Sweden, Harris 90% Trump 10%. In Denmark, Harris 96% Trump 4%. So Donald, I hate to break it to you, I don't think the feeling is mutual. And in one of those Howard Luton eclipse that we're not going to play right now. And one of the things that Donald Trump, you know what they say about these gold cards is we're going to get the richest people. That means we're going to get the best and the brightest people in this country, the most brilliant, the rich. That's where the rich are. It really gives away their entire worldview. If you have a lot of money, they view you as Being smart. If you have a lot of money, they view you as being special. If you're wealthy, they think about you in one way. And if you're not super rich, they think you're scum. They think you're part of a shithole. And that's how this administration views the people. That's why this con that they pulled over working people in our country, it's like, just look at the things they are saying because they are saying it out loud. They think money equals brilliance. They think money equals character. And that cannot be further from the truth.

[Jordi]

Exactly. And look, as we start to wind down this episode, I'm thinking back to how we began it and just again, shout out to those Democratic Congress folks this morning who just crushed it, who went out there and just simply stated the facts, did it with truth. And look, I'm not here to carry water for a political party or anything like that, but it's just the obvious. When you deal with facts, when you deal with the truth, when you deal with receipts, it's a very easy thing to do. Yet Donald Trump and the Trump regime just are constantly lying and gaslighting the American people. It couldn't be more clear where the American people are at this moment. They are sick of being gaslit. They are tired of being lied to. And they are craving the facts, the data and the receipts. And that's why, too, I just want to take a special moment here to shout out this community. Shout out to the Midas mighty. Thank you to all the viewers, The Watchers, the YouTube channel. Thank you to all the audio listeners. Just thank you guys for staying with us every step of the way and letting us give you the fax data and receipts on every episode. So, genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, thank y'.

[Ben Meisel]

All. And that just brings me to the final topic. Quickly, we'll mention is that the Trump DOJ tried yet again to get an indictment of New York Attorney General Letitia James. And you may be saying, but didn't they do that already?

[Jordi]

Yeah.

[Ben Meisel]

And didn't they do that before then? Yes. Just so you remember, initially the indictment got dismissed because Lindsey Halligan was an unlawful prosecutor. She was not allowed to be United States Attorney. So the case against against James and Comey got dismissed. Then the Trump doj, after the case gets dismissed, they try to re indict New York Attorney General Letitia James in Norfolk in Virginia, and the grand jury rejects it. You know how they say ham sandwich can be indicted? Well, they weren't able to indict the ham Sandwich. So to be very. Just to remind you, too, in these grand jury proceedings, the judge isn't there and the target of your indictment is not in the room, or their lawyers are not in the room. The only people in the room are the federal prosecutors and the grand jury. So the federal prosecutors make the presentation without opposition. That's why people say you can indict a ham sandwich. Because no one's, like, objecting. You're just giving them all the evidence you have. And if you're bringing it to them, it's usually gone through a rigorous review that there's probable cause. And the grand jury doesn't have to find proof beyond a reasonable doubt. All they have to find is probable cause, which is a much lower standard. Right. So that's why they say you can indict a ham sandwich. So last week it got rejected. This week they said, all right, let's go to another area. Let's go to Alexandria, Virginia, and try it in front of another group. It got rejected again. So it's the third time it gets rejected. If you count the first dismissal. Dismissed, then rejected, then rejected again after the case got dismissed the first time. First off, this case would never be brought the first time. Right.

[Brett]

I can't believe, like, you're allowed to do this, like, shop grand juries.

[Ben Meisel]

You wouldn't, because you will lose your bar license. Like, the lawyer is behind this. And like, no one would. No one does this. No one would bring the first prosecution. Remember, it's like, you know, how Donald.

[Brett]

Trump was a vexatious litigant and how judges like the Department of Justice now is a vexatious litigant in many ways, continuously filing these cases. And to me, even if at some point, and, you know, I don't see how they're going to do this, but even if at some point they were going to secure an indictment of Letitia James, I think the pattern that they've shown clearly fits into a pattern of malicious prosecution and vindictive prosecution. Like, how could anybody deny that the more they try to pursue this, the more guilty they look. Look in the way that they're going about this. And like we said, they look guilty from the start of this. It was obviously BS from the start of this, but it just gets worse every time.

[Ben Meisel]

Well, the main prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, who was Trump's own appointee, Trump appointed a guy named Eric Siebert. Right? It wasn't the Dems. Trump and his doj. DOJ said, this is it. This is the guy he became the interim, he was going to get approved by the Senate and he was going to get confirmed. But Trump said, you got to do this for me first. You got to go after Letitia James and Comey. He goes, well, we looked into it. There's no crimes there. Well, you gotta leave. So they fired him and they pushed him out. He resigned, but they pushed him out. Then they brought in Lindsey Halligan, but the law says you can't bring in Lindsey Halligan. You only get one interim, and your one interim was Siebert. So if you want to use Halligan, you have to get her confirmed by the Senate. You can't call her an interim the way Siebert was. And he was extended by the judges his term, so he was the person. You get one shot at it under the law. Law. So that's. That would dead any case right there. No one would bring it after he. Just think about it like this. If this case proceeded to a trial, right? And your New York Attorney general, Letitia James and your lawyer, and the standard for finding her guilty is proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Right. There's a memo in this case from the prior top federal prosecutor saying that there is no case and no crimes were committed. So who would. What would you do? You would call a witness. Right. And say maybe an FBI agent. Did you review the file? Yep. In the file, was there a letter from the former top prosecutor?

[Representative Seth Magaziner]

Yep.

[Ben Meisel]

This is the person who leads your office, right? Yep. The top dog, right?

[Representative Seth Magaziner]

Yep.

[Ben Meisel]

Can you read what it says? Sure. It says that there is no crime that has been committed at all and we shouldn't pursue this prosecution. So let me get this straight. Your own former boss said that there not only was no proof beyond a reasonable doubt, but there's no proof? Yep. Okay. That's what'll happen if the case gets to trial. That's why this case will get dismissed immediately even if it went to a trial. Okay. And so, Brett, to your point, that's why this case would never be brought after it got dismissed the first time. You would have fired Lindsey Halligan. You would have got rid of everybody involved in normal times. Then they did it another time. They tried to re indict, that got rejected. You certainly wouldn't bring it another time. But yes, Donald Trump has turned the DOJ into his loser law firms that would get sanctioned. No federal judge respects this. It just looks ridiculous. So that's what's going on there. And then this is why with the DOJ now running and always running the Epstein file release based on the law that was passed. That's why the Democratic lawmaker said, we don't trust you. You think we trust you to produce these files when they're due in a few days? Oh, no way. So the Democrats and the survivors are saying, we want an audit, damn it. We want an audit of what you did to these files because we know that you've spent thousands of hours redacting and probably destroying. So let us know what happened here. We'll keep you posted there. I'll do a video in the morning about that. So we covered a lot of topics. We covered a lot of topics there. I wanted to make sure that all of the Midas Mighty are fully informed about everything heading into this weekend. I feel hope and optimism though, heading into this week, and I really do with all of this darkness. I feel hope, I feel empowered. I feel ready to go to the next year. I feel momentum. That's what we saw in Miami and in Georgia yet again. And of course, the Blue Tsunami earlier last November. So with that, I wish you well. Might as mighty subscribe. Double check that you're subscribed. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Subscribe on audio as well. So go search Midas Touch on audio. Thank you everybody. We'll see you next time.

[Jordi]

Brett Jordy Shout out to the Midas. My day.

[Brett]

Against the fascists.

[Ben Meisel]

We sing our song.

[Jordi]

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