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- [00:01]
Ben Meiselas
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- [00:29]
Brett Meiselas
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- [01:57]
Ben Meiselas
18 + DNC supply the lunatics are running the asylum. Or I should say turning the United States into an asylum. Let's just talk about what went down over the past 24 to 48 hours. We learned that the Trump Department of Defense and national security apparatus would make war plans via group text threads with emojis like fist bump emoji, fire emoji, American flag emoji. The most classified, sensitive compartmented information that exists was all there on a text thread. And how did we learn about it? Because the Department of Defense, led by Pete Hexith, a former Fox host, invited into the group chat, the editor in chief of the media company the Atlantic, who was just in the group chat. He wrote an article, the Trump administration, we should call him a regime texted me, it's war plans. He talks about how he was invited into this chat. He saw the most highly classified information. He didn't know what the heck in the world was going on, and if this was even real. The information was so sensitive, he couldn't even write about a lot of the stuff that he saw. And by the way, Donald Trump was asked about it today at a disastrous press conference and public cabinet meeting after Donald Trump was posting about how upset he was at this portrait being put up in Colorado of him, which he said is a really bad photo. And that was making him really angry, he said in a long ranting and raving post on his social media platform. But then he held this public cabinet meeting, which was also led by Elon Musk, and then a press conference. Trump was asked, hey, you know, you're doing like, your war plans in Yemen with the attack on the Houthis and leaking all this classified information on group text threads, which is one of the most serious violations of the law. Here's what Donald Trump had to say. Let's play it. President. Mr. President, your reaction to the story, the Atlantic, that said that some of your top academy officials and aides have been discussing very sensitive material through Signal and included an Atlantic reporter for that. What is your response to that?
- [04:18]
Donald Trump
I don't know anything about it. I'm not a big fan of the Atlantic. It's. To me, it's a magazine that's going out of business. I think it's not much of a magazine, but I know nothing about it. You're saying that they had what they.
- [04:29]
Ben Meiselas
Were using Signal to coordinate on sensitive materials and having to do with what?
- [04:35]
Donald Trump
Having to do with what? What were they talking about with the Houthis. The Houthis? You mean the attack on the Houthis? Well, it couldn't have been very effective because the attack was very effective. I can tell you that. I don't know anything about it. You're telling me about it for the first time. Anybody else?
- [04:51]
Ben Meiselas
The Department of Defense spokesperson has since Conf. Confirm that this was indeed an authentic chat that was taking place. And did you see Donald Trump's response? I don't know anything about it. I don't know anything about it. But what I do know is that for what, about a decade now, the Trump regime has been attacking former Secretary of State Clinton, frankly, based predominantly on lie after lie after lie and as she posts today. You have to be kidding me. Where they would talk about, oh, she kept this stuff on a, on a server. And a lot of that story was total BS and debunked to begin with. But don't you recall when, I don't know, the Department of Defense head right now, Pete Hegseth, in his previous job as a Fox host, was saying things like this, I think we've got a nice compilation. Courtesy of Courier Newsroom. Play this clip.
- [05:45]
Pete Hegseth
Everyone knows what top secret means. I've got, I've had a top secret clearance. It's big red flashing letters, top secret.
- [05:51]
Jordy Meiselas
You know, when you're looking at something.
- [05:52]
Pete Hegseth
That'S top secret or dealing with it.
- [05:53]
Ben Meiselas
When, when I'm president of the United States, neither she nor any of these other people are going to be above the law. Whether it's her or any of these other folks, they're going to, people are going to be held accountable if they broke the laws of this country. This president obviously is willing to protect his political cronies, but we're going to hold people accountable.
- [06:08]
Pete Hegseth
The double standard is incredible. Imagine if it was, I don't know, Donald Trump, what the media would be doing to him right now, eviscerating him. Or imagine if it was a member of the military, which we've seen from General Cartwright and General Petraeus. They still go after these guys for a tiny, tiny fraction of what she willfully did and betrayed her country in doing so, supposedly for convenience. And it turns out foreign services want to know what our secretary of state thinks. And in this instance, they did whatever they could to break an unsecure server in her basement. It tells you everything you need to know. Who knows what they heard and what they have and the kind of leverage that that gives in negotiations or conversations when you know what our hand is and you can anticipate it or get in front of it, or, you know, our sources and methods.
- [06:49]
Ben Meiselas
I'm not surprised that a military guy like yourself is fired up, because it's people like you who pay the price for this kind of. That's exactly right. Extraordinary stuff. And wasn't it last week where Pete Hegseth was announcing, oh, we're going to build all of these F47s with Donald Trump. They're just going to go right from F35 to F47 because they just love naming things after Donald Trump and just clownish stuff like that. Remember, Hegset said, and now we are respected again. We're so much smarter.
- [07:18]
Pete Hegseth
Under the previous administration, we looked like Fools. Not anymore. President Trump has re established American leadership. The F47 is part of it. And Mr. President, thank you for having the courage to do it and leading the way for all our war fighters.
- [07:32]
Donald Trump
Thank you.
- [07:33]
Ben Meiselas
By the way, last week when Trump announced the F47, he also said that he would make the planes have defects when it would be sold to foreign countries, so it would not be as effective. And now we're seeing a lot of European nations, Canada, Australia and others saying, okay, well, not, we're not going to buy the military equipment from the United States anymore. We're going to form our own defense alliances, which is what they are doing. The Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard back on March 14, 2025, posted, Any unauthorized release of classified information is a violation of the law and will be treated as such. So I guess we should start expecting arrests pretty soon. Is that what we're going to. I, I don't think that's what's going to happen. Instead, Donald Trump appointed Alina Haba to be the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey. And she talked about going after people close to Senator Booker. By the way, we're getting responses fast and furious from politicians about this. What probably is the most egregious leak of war information in the history of the United States, potentially Governor Tim Walls writes Pete Hegset texting out war plans like invites to a frat party. We have Mark Warner, Senator Warner from Virginia out with a statement. If any career intelligence officer had made this gross mistake, they'd be fired. And this administration, I think the odni, the Director of National Intelligence and others have said, you know, we're going to seek out all the leakers. Well, we got a chance to ask them. Tomorrow is going to be a big hearing tomorrow, by the way, with Tulsi Gabbard, who's going to bear the responsibility on this? Congressmember Eric Swalwell post everyone on the public War plans group text should immediately lose their security clearance and be fired. Their idiocy just put a gigantic target on America. We're not safe. And Senator Mark Kelly from Arizona posted notice to White House staff. There is a room in the building and secure systems where you are supposed to have these discussions. Signal, ain't it? Your recklessness put the lives of those pilots at risk. You got lucky. Time to reevaluate the way you are doing things. Let's bring on Brett and Jordy here at the Midas Touch podcast. And we don't know if they got lucky. What we do know is that hackers and other have consistently been able to break through on Signal. We know they're having these chats simply because they inadvertently put on the chat the reporter and editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg from the Atlantic. But how many other group chats exist out there that we don't know about where our most sensitive information has been leaked? Final point I want to make on this long intro, Brett, before throwing it to you. Donald Trump stole classified information when he left the White House the first time. And Donald Trump's appointed federal judge, Judge Eileen Cannon, covered it up for him and basically said special counsels don't exist. But we know that these are people who are not just reckless, but intentionally malicious with our most sensitive data.
- [10:47]
Jordy Meiselas
Brett Jordy, great to be here. Ben, great to be here. Jordi, great to be here. All the listeners and watchers. This is easily, and I want to be clear about this, one of the biggest, if not the biggest, national security blunders that we have seen in this country in the 21st century, if not beyond this is absolutely beyond the pale. Just amateur hour stuff that we are seeing. Thinking that they could get away with this sort of thing in a Signal chat. Yes, Signal chats are secure to a point. They're encrypted. But guess what? That doesn't matter if you're inviting in Rand people into the chats. There is a reason why conversations like this, and Mark Kelly was alluding to this in his post, happen in a skiff in these sensitive facilities that are specifically designated for this kind of talk. They also have online systems that are specifically designated for this kind of talk. There is a reason that cell phones are not allowed inside of skiffs no matter what you have, no matter what encryption you got, no matter what Signal app you are using, because this is some of the most highly sensitive that we have. And to be openly discussing war plans as if we're planning for our podcast. Ben, like you said earlier, you're like, we have greater security protocols for planning for the podcast than I. And I don't even think that's an exaggeration. It's just such an embarrassment we are seeing every single day. Just incompetence meets corruption at levels that we have never seen before with this administration. Just failure after failure, failing the American people, putting people's lives at risk, risk ripping away the programs that people need the most and openly mocking Americans, openly mocking all people's, all the Republican constituents around the country as they ditch these town halls. But you know, I do gotta say this weekend did inspire me As I watched these Democrats holding these rallies, going to these town halls, finally I was like, there it is. Democracy has a pulse. I feel it. Democracy has a pulse. And we saw it out there. We saw the energy. There are movements building. And like I said on the last episode of the show, right now we are seeing a divide not between left and right, within the Democratic Party. We are seeing a divide between those who want to cower and capitulate and want to stand down and those who want to fight. And I love seeing the fighters out there and I know that people want fighters out there. Jordy, great to see you, man. What's new on your end?
- [13:19]
Eric Swalwell
Great to be here. Everybody excited to get into the show. I just want to say this, Brett.
- [13:23]
Jordy Meiselas
I agree.
- [13:24]
Eric Swalwell
First off, people want fighters. That energy over the weekend really energized me again to start, you know, my Monday, my Tuesday, my week, I'm excited to dive right in. People want fighters. As I said on the last show, folks are going to start separating themselves from the packs. They're going to be very easy to identify who are the cowards and who are the ones that want to stand in and fight. It's going to be very easy to see to Hegseth really quickly before we toss it back to Ben. I mean, beyond just the blunder, Brett, this is a full blown scandal at this point and given Hegseth's history, I don't say this lightly or way of mocking it, but it actually has to be asked at this point, was he drunk? We know his abuse of alcohol in the past, it's very well documented from his time at Fox. This is the person. This is what we feared. This isn't just like, aha, I added this person on a group. No, these are war plans. Are you kidding me? Like, this is exactly what everybody feared or at least we knew could have happened. Just this reckless abandonment, this totally just. Oh man, is that just frustrating to see.
- [14:27]
Ben Meiselas
This is why qualifications and character matters. When you bring in a Fox host, by the way, remember in the Dominion lawsuit, we saw all those group text messages of the Fox hosts and how they interact with each other. When you bring a Fox host who never actually led any military group before to lead the Department of Defense, you're going to have adverse, horrific, fatal outcomes. That is necessarily what's going to happen. When you bring in people like RFK who are anti vax conspiracy theorists and you bring them in, you're going to have serious issues regarding the health and well being of Americans. When you bring in people like Tulsi Gabbard, who have a history of laundering, Putin talking points and Russian propaganda. You're going to have that permeate throughout the United States government now, the Trump regime. But, Brett, as you say, I am pumped that it felt like for the first time, democracy has a pulse, democracy has a plan, and democracy has some leaders. And we're seeing Senator Bernie Sanders, Congresswoman aoc, Senator Ossoff. We are seeing people like Congressmember Ro Khanna, a Congress member Kassar from Texas, who I think did an incredible job going on Fox. Congress Member Swalwell. I did a great interview with Congresswoman Janelle Bynum. Got over a million views here. We're seeing people step up in this moment. And a lot of people going, Democrats going into red states, red districts and speaking to their constituents and saying, we know that your MAGA Republican leaders are too cowardly to talk to you about the Trump regime getting rid of Medicaid and calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme and destroying the lives of veterans and destroying your pensions, life savings, retirements and 401ks and gutting the Department of Education. We are here to talk. We are here to tell you about what we're going to try to do to help. And I saw, I mean, to see Rona in Bakersfield, I used to litigate in Baker. Bakersfield. I was like, whoa. And that crowd was into it. He was in Norco, he was in a bunch of other areas speaking to constituents in Republican areas. And Bretton Jordy, you know, when Donald Trump would always say during his campaigning, you know, or he just says in general, these are stupid people, right? He goes, these are stupid people. It's always projection and confession with Donald Trump because him and his regime are stupid people and stupidly dangerous people. I mean, what Hegseth Mike Walls, what these people were doing, it is un, unforgivable. I mean, you look through these text message threads with these emojis, I mean, it looks like a group of people. What in like, what is this? Like, like a March Madness chat? They're like doing, you know, a fist bump emoji. America fire emoji. Good job, Pete. And your team, the team at Mar a Lago think you did a great job. And then it goes into areas where they're talking about, like, they're attacking Europe and they're saying things like, the vp I fully share your loathing of European freeloading. It's pathetic. But Mike is correct. We are the only ones on the planet who can do this. Question is timing. I feel like now is as good as a time as any given POTUS directives. As I hear it, the president was clear green light, but we soon should make clear to Egypt. And, like, they're going, oh, I'm gonna. We're going over very detailed stuff, and there's some messages that Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief, didn't even share because it literally gave sources and methods of our assets and their names and identities, which would get them killed. Brett and Jordy. And then Donald Trump holds this public cabinet meeting where he talks about how he's sending his national security advisor. Who's on that chat? Mike Walls and J.D. vance's wife, the second lady, Usha Vance, to Greenland, which Greenland is viewing very negatively, as a show of force, as a show of aggression, frankly, as an attack on Greenland. And then you had Usha Vance make this really weird video of herself. I mean, this looks like right out of, like, a Russian propaganda AI bot. Like, like, I. I had to, like, do three or four double takes. Take a look at Usha Van, Second lady, talking about going into an air. Well, first let me show you what Trump said, and then I'll show USA do Trump first, and then Usha first. Here's what Trump said. One for you, Mr. President. Greenland is confused about the second lady and the National Security advisor visiting this week. They're concerned that this is further provocation, whatever it is you all ultimately want for Greenland. Could you further explain why they're going? What is the ultimate end goal?
- [19:51]
Donald Trump
Yeah, well, not provocation. This is friendliness, not provocation. We're dealing with a lot of people from Greenland that would like to see something happen with respect to their being properly protected and properly taken care of. They're calling us, we're not calling them. And we were invited over there, and I thought it would be great. I have great respect for the wife of our first of our great vice president. I think she's doing a. She's a brilliant woman. She's a very nice woman, and she loves the concept of Greenland. And so she's going there, and I think Marco is going there and some others are going there, but we've been invited.
- [20:32]
Ben Meiselas
Greenland does not want them there. The prime minister of Greenland, who was defeated in this election while a new government is being formed, he goes, we don't want them there. The individuals who are expected to lead the new government, including the person expected to be the new prime minister, said, we don't want the US There. The Greenlanders have made it very clear they do not want to be controlled by The United States. In Denmark, Rasmus Jarlov, a conservative member of parliament who also leads the defense committee in their parliament there, who also said, by the way, like, we should not buy any more F35s because Trump is saying that he's going to put a kill switch or potentially put defects on it, even if it's not true. And they're just saying that hyperbolically. How could we trust him? He goes, denmark will not sell Greenland. Denmark will not accept and will block any attempts of bribing the Greenlanders. Denmark will not change its stance, regardless of threats. Greenland has been under the Danish crown since 1380. It is a fully integrated part of Denmark and the Greenlanders are citizens of Denmark. Only 6% of people in Greenland would prefer being American rather than Danish. The only political party that said they trust Donald Trump got 1% and no seats in the Grandlandic Parliament in the election a few weeks ago. Not a single member of the Grandlandic Parliaments wants to become American. All of them find it intimidating and threatening that the US does not respect that. No means no. No means no, Donald. That's why these people are. Trump has always been a predator. He's a sexual predator. He is a predator in life. He's an adjudged sexual predator in a civil case. He is a disgusting and vile person. And you see his behavior there. And then you have Usha making this Russian style kind of propaganda, weird video. Hello.
- [22:30]
AOC
I'm so excited to share that I'll be visiting Kalali Una Greenland next weekend. I'm particularly thrilled to visit during our national dog sled race, which our country is proud to support as a sponsor. I've been reading all about it with my children and I'm amazed by the incredible skill and teamwork that it takes to participate in this race. I'm also coming to celebrate the long history of mutual respect and cooperation between our nations and to express hope that our relationship will only grow stronger in the coming years. I look forward to meeting many of you soon and to learning from you about your beautiful land, culture and traditions. See you soon.
- [23:06]
Ben Meiselas
You ever go into like a hotel room and. And the video on the hotel room is kind of that corny style with like a narrator like that and it's like, welcome to the hotel. We hope you do enjoy your stay at the hotel. I'm not going to disparage any hotels at our hotel. We have some great accommodations. You will enjoy the city, enjoy your stay. Everybody. Like, what the hell did we just watch?
- [23:31]
Jordy Meiselas
I think it was worse than that it was, it felt like an AI video. And that's why we watched the clip a few times before we even went live on the show. And Ben was like, this is real, right? I'm like, yeah, she posted it and it's real. Like, like where this is real, right? No, this is actually real. And I think what they did also, in addition to, you know, the delivery and everything being weird, I think they ran it through an AI filter. I'm not saying it's AI, but to try to, like they didn't record her with a microphone and they were trying to improve it in. So gave it this other like robotic feel. But you know, you always wonder like when, when somebody's kind of not in the public spotlight, like Anusha Vance, like, like how does she feel about all of this? Like all of the chaos? Do you give them the benefit of the doubt and then you see stuff like this and you go, no, you can't. You can't at all. They're complicit in the entire thing. And it's, this is just the latest in a long line of attacks. We shouldn't be in a place right now where we even have to speak about the United States threatening the sovereignty of a bunch of countries. Like it's not even just one would be enough, right? One would be batshit crazy. But you have Donald Trump threatening Panama, you have Donald Trump threatening Canada, Donald Trump threatening Greenland and Europe. I mean, the whole thing is absolutely batshit crazy. And I refuse to normalize this lunacy that we are seeing as the administration also rolls out these other side characters like Usha Vance to try to make it sound normal. Oh, we're just visiting. We're just going to see the dog led race, you know, who's also going. The National Security Advisor of the United States is going to Greenland as well. One of the other reasons why Greenland is viewing this as a threat, you have Donald Trump openly speaking about annexing all of these countries, going to war with these countries, economic war, actual war, they should frankly feel threatened. And honestly, if I were Europe, I, you know, I actually, I don't even have to make this hypothetical. Europe is already right now in the process of forming coalitions to go against the United States. Whether that's, we're not going to buy American weapons, whether that's, we're starting to think of it in a few years from now of a NATO without the United States, of a defense alliance where the United States is not even involved in this. Donald Trump has been and his administration, they have been the most dangerous administration in American history, bar none. They are just so incredibly reckless. And in just a matter of weeks, just a few months, they have completely destroyed the United States standing in the world.
- [26:03]
Eric Swalwell
Brett, that Usha Vance video that is giving Senator Katie Britt vibes. Remember the RNC rebuttal? I mean that is that what, what did we just watch? But Brett, time and time again, you're proven to be 100% correct. We're not living in a democracy. We're living in a cacistocracy. Brett, your favorite word, right? A government run by Jordan and least qualified people. That's what we continue to see play in, like play out every single day. I don't say it lightly like this. All of our lives are in danger because these people are at the helm right now. They have the wheel right now. How far off the road are they going to go? Well, how far will we let them? And going back to how we intro it, that's why I'm so excited to see the fight of the Dems, Brett, coming forward over the past weekend. Because once again the fighters are showing themselves right now and quite frankly, now more than ever, that's exactly what we need. Not just as a party, as Democrats, but as a country. We need people who are going to push back against this just lunacy that we're seeing play out.
- [27:04]
Ben Meiselas
You know, kakistocracy, Big word, big word, big word. But I just want to call it a regime of stupidity, vileness and recklessness and dangerousness. These are just bad, bad people who are also incredibly dumb. When we got back from our neck from our first quick break of the show, I want to talk about these snap elections that were called in Canada. Prime Minister Mark Carney has got the okay to dissolve Parliament. April 28 will be the snap elections and we're already learning that the far right wing party led by Pierre Poliev in Canada, Canada's Conservative Party was involved in very malicious election interference efforts with Donald Trump to try to have Donald Trump say the types of things to try to undermine the Liberal Party to help the Conservative Party using the premiere from Alberta, Daniel Smith as a conduit. This is some wild, explosive stuff going on in Canada. I also want to talk about the ruling earlier today by Judge Boasberg in Washington D.C. who rejected Donald Trump's attempt to try to remove the injunction blocking the Trump regime from further kidnapping people and sending them to concentration camps in El Salvador without giving some sort of process to determine if under the Alien Enemies act, individuals are actually Venezuelan gang members or if they are not, what a what a concept. There should be some process before human beings are kidnapped and put in concentration camps from a United States government. I mean, the Overton Window has been so turned on its head that I have to even say that that is a thing that had to be ruled on by a Federal Judge. Reminder patreon.com Midas Touch we will be shortly announcing when our next meeting will be on Zoom. If you ever wanted to meet me, Bretton Jordy in a Zoom meeting, check us out on patreon.com Midas Touch Also, MidasPlus.com is a great spot to check out the latest breaking news from our Editor in Chief Ron Filipkowski and other contributors. We'll be right back after our first quick break. So every now and then we're reminded about those many healthy resolutions we made over the years. To lose weight, to exercise more, and of course to eat better. But a goal without a plan is a plan to fail. So. So what I did is I tried Prolon. Prolon's five day program gives you the tool to put your health goals into action with a science backed plan that makes it easy to stay focused and achieve real results. Go back and look at some videos of me from about three to four months ago before I tried Prolon. Prolon has made a difference for me and I think it'll make a difference for you as well. So here's what it does Prolons Fasting Mimicking Diet is a revolutionary plant based nutrition program that nourishes the body while making cells believe they're fasting. It was researched and developed for decades at USC Longevity Institute. By the way, I teach at USC Law. It all starts with their five day program, snacks, soups and beverages designed to keep your body in a fasting state. No guesswork or planning required. Three consecutive cycles of Prolon have been shown to reduce your biological age score by an average of 2.5 years and your waist circumference by 1.5 inches. It worked for me. As I said, go look at some videos for me in the past. I tried it. It worked. I think it'll work for you as well. So help kickstart a health plan for you that'll work. Prolon is now offering the Midas Touch podcast listeners like you 15% off site wide plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their five day nutrition program. Just visit prolonlife.com Midas that's P R O L-O-N L I F E.com Midas to claim your 15 discount and your bonus gift. Prolonlife.com Midas check it out if there's.
- [31:14]
Eric Swalwell
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- [33:14]
Ben Meiselas
Well, you know Donald Trump's Commerce Secretary was doing one of those like podcast tech bro things and on that Howard Lutnick, he was talking about how if you complain about getting a Social Security check late or not receiving it one month, he Says you're probably one of these criminal or fraudsters we're looking at because only criminal and fraudsters are the ones who complain when they don't get their Social Security check. Howard Lutnick is a billionaire and he says that his 94 year old mother in law, she would never actually complain at all if she'd missed a month of getting her Social Security check. So everybody should be like his mother in law. We know that Elon Musk previously referred to Social Security as a Ponzi scheme. And also the Trump regime has already shut down or is in the process of shutting down 47 Social Security offices, making it difficult for people to have to show up, usually elderly people, older people at Social Security offices to access what they are entitled to have or to even get to speak to people. This is the cruelty of the Trump regime and the banality of evil with which corporate news treats. All of this. Not here on the Midas Touch Network. While all of that is going on, we talked about it earlier in the episode Donald Trump just making the most grifty and vile posts. I talked about at the beginning of the show how Trump was saying he doesn't like this photo of himself in, in Colorado. He says that it's the official portrait of him and that he looks really bad and that the lady who painted it must be too old and that's why she does a bad job painting him.
- [35:12]
Jordy Meiselas
Genuinely one of the craziest posts I've ever seen. When I saw it last night, I like couldn't even believe that this.
- [35:16]
Ben Meiselas
I mean, let me just read it just so people.
- [35:18]
Eric Swalwell
Wait, Ben, before you read it, were you guys familiar with this? Trump made this a story like nobody was even talking.
- [35:25]
Jordy Meiselas
I want to talk about this vote. I mean, how many people are. How many people actually go into the Colorado State Capitol on a daily and.
- [35:32]
Eric Swalwell
By the way, way, like it looks like him. Like it looks more like him than the weirdo Rambo. You know, Photoshop, six pack things. Like, is he that the. In the weirdo Elvis comparison, like looking into a mirror? I bet it. Oh, I look. I guess if you're Donald Trump, you don't like looking into a mirror because that reflection would be scary both, you know, mentally and, and actually what you look like. But that is unbelievable.
- [35:54]
Ben Meiselas
I mean, whether it's a good picture or not a good picture is really beside the point. Jordy, I'm not sure what you're doing with your thumb there.
- [35:59]
Jordy Meiselas
What are you doing with your thumb? I don't know. You're making me Uncomfortable?
- [36:01]
Eric Swalwell
No, this is Donald came to the podcast today in real life and also in that photo in here too. That's this.
- [36:08]
Jordy Meiselas
Jordy is putting his thumb in the camera. He's making me uncomfortable. I don't know what's going on.
- [36:11]
Ben Meiselas
Okay. All right. This is what Donald Trump. This is what Donald Trump. We're trying to stay the number one podcast Jordy in the country. Just get a reminder. That does it. Donald Trump posted the following. Nobody likes a bad picture or painting of themselves, but the one in Colorado in the state capitol, put up by the governor along with all the other presidents, was purposely distorted to a level that even I perhaps have never seen before. I have no clue what that means. The artist also did President Obama and he also looks wonderful. But the one in me is truly the worst. She must have lost her talent as she got older. In any event, I would have much prefer not having a picture than having this one. But many people from Colorado have called and written to complain. In fact, they are actually angry about it. I'm speaking on their behalf to the radical left Governor Jared Polis, who is extremely weak on crime, in particular with respect to train day Aragua, which practically took over Aurora. Then he posts the photo. The trend Iragua did not practically take over Aurora. That was another lie by Donald Trump. They talked about this one building where it turned out it was not actually taken over by the trend Aragua. And the the mayor of Aurora had to confirm it. Then Donald Trump just kept on posting photos of himself and then. And then earlier in the day he posted I love Trump. Dollar Sign Trump. So cool. The greatest of them all. Truth social is on fire, by the way. Dollar Sign Trump is his meme coin, which he tried to kind of do the pump and dump thing. And by the way, it's been crashing. It's at like 10 or 11, 11.65, which like totally crashed. Was that like, wasn't that like a hundred dollars once and was worth like billions of dollars after it was announced during the inauguration? And then so many people lost so many billions and billions of dollars. But Trump made all the money on the transaction fees because you get a transaction fee when people buy. Regardless of whether to consider, though, is.
- [38:02]
Jordy Meiselas
That everything Donald Trump does is via the lens of the grift, and that includes American policy. And so when he made the comment on social media about his meme coin, what happened? The price spiked up yesterday a little bit. Right. And you got to assume that any time that he's playing with things where you have price spikes and Prices falling, that there is somebody on the other end who is making money off it. Somebody close to Donald Trump. Trump, this is me speculating here. And, and we see. We see that yesterday with the meme coin, how it spiked after he said it. I think you could apply this not only to the Griffs that we are seeing, but I think you got to consider it with the way that he's handling all these tariffs. The tariffs are on. No, the tariffs are off. Scare the markets. The markets drop. Oh, pull them back a little bit. The markets go back up.
- [38:42]
Ben Meiselas
More.
- [38:43]
Jordy Meiselas
More tariffs, they go back down. His people get to buy stuff cheap, then they go back up. They're playing a game right now in order to just further enrich billionaires and people who are in the know, and they are screwing over the American people in the process, screwing over the entire world and are threatening all of our allies and are turning all of our allies against us with all of these threats. And I think you got to look ultimately as what is one of the goals of this thing? And I think one of the most obvious goals is that some people are getting really rich off all this shit.
- [39:12]
Ben Meiselas
Yeah. Well, one of the things that some people are speculating is that the crash of the economy is intentional. Because if you look at all of the steps, you know, again, you're either just the stupidest people or you're doing it intentionally and maliciously, or perhaps both. But.
- [39:28]
Jordy Meiselas
Well, Ben, let me remind everybody, though, right? What's one of the biggest problems in the country right now? Wealth inequality. Right. I think wealth inequality, if you take that, you could go back to when we didn't have as much wealth inequality to the just drastic amounts of wealth inequality we have today. I think this is one of the most, if not the most defining issues of our time. And I think almost everything in our country, all the issues with our country, all the division in our country, could also be traced back to wealth inequality many ways. I think when you look at certain moments in our history, especially in our recent history, what happened after the 2008, 2009 stock market crash? Well, rich people got a whole lot richer and regular people got a whole lot poorer. That was a trend that continues to this day. You could follow that to any recession. Right. What happened in the Pre. In the 2000, the 2020 recession, rather, when Covid happened and Donald Trump ignored it and handled it in the most malicious way possible. People lost their jobs, their life savings. It was an absolute shit show. Well, what happened? Well, the rich people got a whole lot more wealth and the regular people in this country got a whole lot poorer. You see that divide? I just smacked my microphone. You see that divide continuing to increase. Any time there is a recession, somehow the rich get richer and the regular people in this country get poorer. So to me, it doesn't defy logic to assume, oh, Donald Trump maybe wants a recession. Maybe he's trying to push our country into this chaos to continue that trend. Because this is a government that is right now literally being run by oligarchs. And, you know, we saw our Gen Z correspondent, Adam Mockler did a fantastic job. He was speaking about Elon Musk and he was speaking about the oligarchy and all these other things. He went on Newsmax, okay, into enemy territory where facts don't matter, and he brought the truth. And it was absolutely epic. But during that moment, when he brings up Elon Musk, I think they're to protect Donald Trump. They always try to do these non sequiturs that don't make any sense. They'll be like, well, well, George Clooney. Well, George Clooney. And I'm like, would George Clooney have on Elon Musk? Elon Musk is the richest man in the entire world. George Soros. George Soros, and Mockler rightly pointed out, is George Soros in meetings. And George Soros actually has a fraction, a fraction of the wealth that Elon Musk has and doesn't nearly wield it like this. This, and this obviously all stems back to Citizens United, which I'm happy is also getting a lot more attention right now. By the way, I saw Jon Ossoff speaking about Citizens United. You see Bernie Sanders, who's consistently talked about Citizens United, that's the court decision that allowed unlimited money in our politics. And I think it's really one of the things that is so corrupted our country and enabled a Trump, Musk, you know, kind of thing to rise in the first place.
- [42:17]
Ben Meiselas
Look, if you talk about basic economics, one way to think about it is imagine a fire devastates an area, burns down the entire community, right? People are suffering. What happens? The developers often kind of swoop in and try to buy the property for pennies on the dollar. Now think about that type of fire writ large in an economy. The people suffer. The billionaires force the Fed to reduce the interest rate. They're able to borrow more. They have access to this capital while people are suffering and struggling, and they further entrench themselves and increase this economic disparity that exists. Of course, I'm Oversimplifying it, but that's basically the theory of what many people think is happening here. I want to talk about this as well. Just look at the front page of the Miami Herald from this past weekend. Disheartening. Donald Trump is removing legal status for more than half a million Cubans, Haitians, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans. The program will shut down in late April. About half a million or more people here with lawful status. The Trump regime saying they're going to remove their lawful status. These are a lot of people who are the Venezuelans and Cubans for Trump. Their family members are now potentially subject to being treated as Trend day Aragua because Donald Trump wants to arbitrarily call anybody who he wants to call Trend or Agua gang members and either put them in ICE detention centers, send them to El Salvador concentration camps, or send them back to the country where they are political exiles from, like the Maduro regime in Venezuela, where they're likely could be subject to torture or death or something like that. We're learning a lot about the group of people who Donald Trump kidnapped and sent to El Salvador. And some of the stories we're hearing are horrifying. It's. It should be noted that none of these people were given due process. The Trump regime claimed that these 200 or so people who were sent to El Salvador concentration camps were Trend gang members. And Trump says, we are in a war with Venezuela and these individuals are basically enemy combatants who have invaded the United States. Thus they need to go immediately into concentration camps in El Salvador without due process at all. By the way, even after nine, 11 people were who were accused of being terrorists had some sort of military commission or tribunal process to determine were they terrorists, are they not terrorists? What's the process?
- [44:49]
Jordy Meiselas
So here's, here's the thing. Let me, let me, let me just make this abundantly clear. First off, this isn't even a, this isn't a liberal value, a conservative value, isn't a Republican Democrat. This is just an American value. People have due process no matter what you think. People have due process. Why? Well, because then a executive, an executive could just declare anybody to be anything. And then you have to just accept that. Like, are you okay with that? Because in that case, let me tell you something. Nobody is safe in this country. Not you listening, not you Republican who's trying to defend this sort of behavior. Not you, maga. None of you are safe ever, ever. Because we don't have a. You don't have a country. You don't have any rights anymore. You know why? Because all Donald Trump has to do do is say you're an illegal immigrant. All Donald Trump has to do is say you're a gang member and you are giving him full authority to then take you and ship you to a concentration camp in El Salvador. Like, just think, think about that, because you are saying that you don't need a proof. You could say, oh, I'll show you my id. I'll show you my license. I'll show you my password. That's part of due process. And you are saying that you don't care about that whatsoever. This is not even a close call. This is not even a debate. There's no gray area here. People deserve due process. And, Ben, as we learn, the people who were sent to Venezuela, I mean, sent to El Salvador, it's horrifying, and it shows exactly why these protections and these fundamental rights are so important.
- [46:11]
Ben Meiselas
We're learning about Andres, who was a hairdresser in the United States here as an asylum seeker. He was a gay man who fled Venezuela. He was not a gang member. He was waiting on his next court appearance as an asylum seeker fleeing the Maduro regime, where he could be killed and tortured for who he is. And then he was one of the individuals who got kidnapped, got sent to El Salvador. And then a Time magazine photo journalist reported about an individual who he saw in El Salvador crying on the ground, and he was pummeled to the ground by the El Salvador army and beat. And he was saying, I'm not a gang member. I'm a bar. I'm a hairdresser. I'm a hairdresser. I was just seeking asylum. So we learned that story. We learned about the professional soccer player from Venezuela who was a soccer coach here, who had a Real Madrid tattoo, not a gang member. He did the sign for love in a photo that was on Instagram or on the social media. He was an individual who the Trump regime took and sent to El Salvador and put in the concentration camp system there. We're learning about women who were sent to El Salvador when the El Salvador concentration camps don't take women. It's just a concentration camp for men. And we just saw this declaration that was filed by the ACLU on behalf of one of those women going by the initials S, Z, F, R. And she talks about how while she was on the plane, within a couple of minutes of takeoff, I heard two US Government officials talking. And they said, there's an order saying that we can take off, but we already have taken off. While on the plane Government officials were asking the men to sign documents and threatening them. The men didn't want to sign the documents. I heard them discussing the documents, and they were about the men admitting that they were members of Trend. And the men were saying, saying, we don't want to sign it. It's not true. And then it goes and talks about how they were getting beat and shackled on the plane. I mean, we're hearing these horror stories. And then the Trump regime is just like, nope, they're terrorists. They're terrorists. And by the way, Trump's national security advisor, Mike Walls, who was on that text message thread where all of the war plans have now been leaked, where they compromised our national security, he was on the Sunday shows and he was asked, hey, you know, there are women on that plane. He was like, oopsies. Oh, oopsies. Look, Oopsies. So this judge that wanted to turn a flight around full of gang members that had intelligence packets there was. That had determined what they're doing to a men's man's prison and El Salvador said, no. I mean, so it's the question of if you. I can't speak to those individuals. Individual details. If you want to. That you get the list. Right. But. Right, you can verify that these people are gang members. Every one of them were here illegally. So first of all, we had every right and every. And should deport every one of these individuals. If you want to make a special case for one, that's fine. But underlying that, underlying that is the Alien act that has determined that commander in chief has the absolute authority to do this. Okay. As Judge Jeb Boasberg said today, he goes, I don't even have to get to whether or not the Alien Enemies act was properly invoked or not, whether there was a war or not. He goes, under the Alien Enemies act, you would still have to prove that the individuals are who you purport them to be. And federal courts get to determine, are these individuals, as you say, trende or agua or not? There has to be be a process for that. And by the way, did you see how. And good for that question, by the way, how he changed? Well, I can't speak to the individual details of the cases. Then what the hell are you doing? That's the whole thing. You're speaking to the individual. That's why you have due process. These are individuals who you're now killing. So of course you need to speak to the individual details. You freaking. That's why I said castocracy is a great word, Jordy. But these people are stupid and they're dangerous and they're vile and they're anti American. And frankly, you know, sometimes people are like, oh, Ben, but how are you going to win those people over and try. Screw those people. Those people are traitors. And I'm not even trying to. I don't give a shit. Excuse my language. Screw those traitors. They're anti American. If you care about democracy, if you care about our country, if you care about the values of America, then stand up for them. Not trying to appease these freaking morons anymore. And when we talk about in our next after the quick break, I want to just talk about Democrats who are out there fighting, fighting for values and principles that actually matter to the people, fighting for the workers, fighting for equality, fighting for our basic human rights, fighting the oligarchy as Senator Bernie Sanders and AOC's tour is named. As they go to Denver, 35,000 people. As they go to Tucson, 25,000 people people, 15,000 people. It tend to be close to a hundred thousand people at five stops. Then you have Senator Ossoff in Georgia who's doing an incredible job. You've got Ro Khanna going to red districts. You had Congressmember Swalwell going to MAGA Republican Annapolina's district. You've got just Americans holding town halls with scared MAGA Republicans in abstention. They're doing town halls and they're doing like, they're doing like cardboard cutouts of their scared and weak and pathetic MAGA Republican congress members who aren't showing up. So when we get back, I want to talk about what's going on in Canada. I want to highlight what's going on with these Democrats across the country. Let's take our last quick break of the show. Reminder midasplus.com Check it out. And also check out patreon.com Midas Touch if you want to meet Brett, Jordy and I when we will shortly be announcing when our next live Zoom meeting meetup is going to be. Let's take our last.
- [52:15]
Jordy Meiselas
You ever hit that point where every time you look in the mirror, you're like, yeah, I got a lot of gray hairs right now. Same here. I wanted to cover mine up, but the home dye kits are messy, the salon is expensive, and the ingredients and a lot of products just weren't working for me. That's why I switched to Simpler Hair Color. This podcast is sponsored by Simpler Hair Color. It's the easiest way to eliminate gray hair. Modern men deserve simpler, safer ways to care for their appearance. With Simpler Hair Color, you get gentler ingredients without all the messy mixing or those constant trips to the salon or drugstore. If you're tired of feeling like you're conducting a science experiment just to touch up your grays, you need to try Simpler Hair Color. I used the dark brown shade last week before a big event. Just pump, apply, wait and wash. No drips, no delay, and it worked perfectly. Simpler Hair Color was started by Snehal Patel and Mitch Brown, two men who appreciate better dyeing options hair and beards. They endured the mess of home dye kits and the harsh ingredients of salons for years, so they developed their own safer and simpler hair dye formula for men. And with Simpler Hair Color, there's no need to buy a separate hair beard and touch up product. A single can of Simpler Hair Color has you covered for them all. Plus, one can of Simpler Hair Color provides as many uses as up to four boxes of drugstore hair dye. Simpler Hair Color dyes are formulated and manufactured in the USA with over 9,500 five star reviews and counting. So you know you're using a proven and trusted product made by men for men. Say goodbye to grays the easy way with Simpler Hair color. Head to simplerhaircolor.com midas and use code MIDAS that's Me I D A S for 10% off your order. Once again, that's simplerhaircolor.com backslash MIDAS Me I D A S for 10 percent off off and make sure you use my promo code Midas so they know I sent you. Did you know Fast Growing Trees is the biggest online nursery in the US with thousands of different plants and over 2 million happy customers. They have all the plants your yard needs, like fruit trees, privacy trees, flowering trees, shrubs, and so much more. Whatever plants you're interested in, Fast Growing Trees has you covered. Find the perfect fit for your climate and space. Fast Growing Trees makes it easy to get your dream yard order online and get your plants delivered directly to your door in just a few days without ever leaving home. Their alive and thrive guarantee ensures your plants arrive happy and healthy. Plus get support from trained plant experts on call to help you plan your landscape, choose the right plants and learn how to care for them. I got a lemon tree from Fast Growing Trees and it's my favorite thing in my yard. I was worried about ordering plants online, but it arrived fresh, strong and ready to plant. Plus now I get to just walk outside and pick my own citrus. Not to mention it smells amazing every time I go out. And by the way big yard, small yard, no yard at all. Doesn't matter. Fast growing trees has over 6,000 plants to fit any space. From indoor plants to fruit trees to full size privacy trees and more. Fast growing Trees has plant experts on call. So if you're like me and don't have a green thumb, they'll help you choose the right plant and keep it thriving. This spring they have the best deals for your yard up to half off off on select plants and other deals. And listeners to Our show get 15 off their first purchase when using the code midas at checkout. That's an additional 15 off at fast growing trees.com using the code MIDAS ME I- at checkout fast growingtrees.com code MIDAS now is the perfect time to plant. Use Midas to save today. Offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions may apply.
- [55:49]
Eric Swalwell
Let's go shout out to our pro democracy sponsors. Simpler hair color. Brett, your hair looks amazing. And Fast growing trees links in description of the audio and the YouTube use the codes. Use the links. Let them know we sent you. And hey, while I have y'all here also, big announcement, big announcement, guys. New merch, new merch@store.midas touch.com got this really sweet Midas touch. Midas Touch hat that's for pre order. Right now we got the don't blame me, I watch Midas Touch tea that's out and the pro democracy sticker pack. They got cool phrases on there like club democracy make lying wrong again. And some, some others too that I know you're gonna love. So check that out. Store.midas touch.com and I hope you all enjoy. We got some more that we're working on as well. But that's just, that's just the first.
- [56:34]
Jordy Meiselas
Batch Jordy's been cooking. They got more in the lab, a lot more where that came from and, and, and Canada. Get ready, get ready, folks. That's all I'm saying.
- [56:43]
Eric Swalwell
Working on something special for Canada.
- [56:44]
Ben Meiselas
Benjamin Strong elbows up Prime Minister Carney and the Liberal Party there now soaring in the polls. But do not get complacent. A complete switch from what we saw a few months ago where the right wing maple MAGA Conservative Party was in the lead, although that party had been compromised by Trump and maga and all of the links to Mar a Lago and Elon Musk and they were doing the right wing podcast type of tour and sure, that backfired pretty big time. So Prime Minister Carney the banker against Donald Trump the bankrupter. You got the banker in Prime Minister Mark Carney, who led Canada through the financial crisis in the mid-2000s, leading the bank of Canada as their governor, bank of Canada's governor, and then the governor of the bank of England during Brexit, dealing with some of the most difficult crises. This guy is one of the top business guys against Donald Trump, a complete con artist. So Prime Minister Carney over the weekend called for the snap general elections, which will take place on April 28th. And he delivered a powerful statement when he announced that elections would be called, Parliament would be dissolved. And now they are in their process where election season, it comes on quick in Canada. Once those snap elections are called, that's where they're in right now. But watch this incredible statement from Prime Minister Carney.
- [58:15]
Mark Carney
There is so much more to do to secure Canada, to invest in Canada, to build Canada, to unite Canada. That's why I'm asking for a strong, positive mandate from my fellow Canadians. I've just requested that the Governor General dissolve Parliament and call an election for April 28. And she has agreed. We are facing the most significant crisis of our lifetimes because of President President Trump's unjustified trade actions and his threats to our sovereignty. Our response must be to build a strong economy and a more secure Canada. President Trump claims that Canada isn't a real country. He wants to break us so America can own us. We will not let that happen. We're over the shock of the betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons. We have to look out for ourselves. We have to look out for each other.
- [59:33]
Ben Meiselas
Prime Minister Carney definitely seems to be the right guy for that job. And as Prime Minister Carney announced those snap elections, the other news to break in Canada was that the Alberta premier, Danielle Smith, was involved in secret discussions with Donald Trump and J.D. vance, also via a Conservative Member of Parliament who was JD Vance's Yale closest friend. Jamal Javati is the guy's name who works very closely with Pierre Polyev. And they were trying to work with Donald Trump saying, hey, Trump, can you do this? Can you maybe keep the tariffs down just a little bit so that we can try to claim a victory? And you can help Pierre Poliev, the Maple MAGA Conservative leader there, win. And we heard on the audio Danielle Smith say this, like saying that she's admitting to working with Poliev, the right wing Conservative leader, to engage in election interference via Donald Trump, Trump and J.D. vance to try to help the Conservative Party. So on the one hand, you have that incredible speech by Prime Minister Carney and then the news broke about this election interference plot by the conservative leader of Alberta. I mean, what in the world is going on? So we'll keep you posted every step of the way there. While that was going on, too, we previously reported how Canada purchased and has bolstered their defense systems, a massive purchase of satellite systems, systems from Australia. By the way, the first customer of this new satellite system that went to the Nunavut Arctic region in Canada, the customer was supposed to be the United States. And so Australia and Canada cut the US out and Canada purchased this surveillance system. Canada is also reevaluating whether or not it's going to buy F35s or not. And I think it's inclined not to. And then investing heavily in its own defenses to protect against America invasion. Could you imagine that? I even have to like, say that that there. But that's the reality. As I've said, Trump's words are not merely a trade war, which would be bad. The people of Canada, other than Daniel Smith of Alberta, mostly have united because they view Trump's language not as just a trade war, but as a real war. We've been reporting how the boycott by Canada of all things American, have impacted tourism for certain types of, like luxury and leisure tourism by up to 85%. And the boycott in Canada of American products, the Buy Canada movement is surging there. Buying Canada stuff, which is very helpful to the Canadian economy and American suppliers and American distributors are getting crushed. That's in addition to even retaliatory tariffs in Canada. They're saying, elbows up, go over the boards. And they are fighting back and showing the world how you stand up to the pathetic, vile Cachistocracy Trump regime. How vile and pathetic. Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump's special envoy to Russia, not really the envoy to Ukraine, to Russia. He talked about over the weekend how he trusts Putin and Putin is so honest and Putin did a beautiful painting painting of Donald and Putin's never going to go into Europe. Here's what Wyckoff had to say. Let's play. Now, I've been asked my. My opinion. So about what? What President Putin's motives are on a larger scale. And I simply have said that. I just don't see that he wants to take all of Europe. This is a much different situation than it was in World War II, by the way. It's about two minutes of him glazing Putin and telling the Russian propaganda lie version of why Russia unlawfully invaded Ukraine. Like hook, line and sinker. You couldn't have asked like, like Peskov, the Russian PR person. Couldn't have done a better job if you were spreading or a worse job spreading the Russian propaganda than Steve Witkoff did. But let's talk about the Democrats surging, swarming into red districts and red states and just giving incredible speeches. First, let me highlight Senator Assoff from Georgia, I think, reminding us all again what a powerful speaker. Here he is. Here he is in Atlanta. But this was a powerful rally from this weekend. Let's play the clip and see, this is why things don't work for ordinary people. It's not because of traffic, trans kids or woke college students. It's not because of our new arch enemy, Canada. The corruption is why you pay a fortune for prescriptions. The corruption is why your insurance claim keeps getting denied. The corruption is why hedge funds get to buy up all the houses in your neighborhood and Congress doesn't do anything about it. See, this is why so many have lost faith in our system. System. Because the system really is rigged. But Trump's not unrigging it. He's re rigging it for himself. I had the opportunity to interview Senator Ossoff today. I will be dropping that interview early tomorrow morning. So make sure you keep checking the YouTube channel for when the interview drops. Then you have Democratic Congressmember Ro Connoisseur. Now, he represents the Silicon Valley district in California. More billionaires in his district than any congressional district in the United States. And he had a simple message as he toured three districts in California that had Republican Congress members who are refusing to hold town halls. So here he is in Bakersfield where you have a maga, Republican Congressmember Valadao, who refuses to hold town halls. And Ro Khanna has the greatest line. He goes, I represent the district with the most billionaires and they should be taxed more. If I'm willing to say that. And they're in my district. What are all these MAGA Republicans scared about?
- [66:19]
Donald Trump
Look, I represent a district in Silicon Valley. You probably heard of it. Apple, Google, Nvidia, all those companies. You know, here's what I don't understand. I'm for taxing the billionaires more. There's no one in the 435 districts in America. No one has more billionaires than my district. If the guy who has all the billionaires can say tax some more, how is this a hard vote for the other 434 members of Congress? I don't get it. We need to tax the billionaires and the ultra wealthy to provide guaranteed health care, Medicare for all in this country, universal education and to have fairness in America.
- [67:03]
Brett Meiselas
Right?
- [67:03]
Ben Meiselas
Powerful stuff. He was in Bakersfield. How Ruby Red is Bakersfield. Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris like by 19 in Bakersfield. And then Adam Schiff lost Bakersfield to garvey by over 30 points. That's how Ruby Reddit is. And Ronna went into that district and was just speaking the truth, just talking to, talking to the people because they're MAGA Republican congress members was too scared to hold town halls. How about Bernie Sanders and AOC? Close to 100,000 people showing up at these five events. Their fight the Oligarchy tour here. Senator Sanders is saying, look, we are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. There is no excuse for 800,000 people sleeping on the streets.
- [67:52]
Bernie Sanders
Absolutely important is for us never to forget we are today the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. There is no excuse for 800,000 people to be sleeping out on the streets. There is no excuse for 20 million people, including people right here, paying 40 or 50% of their limited incomes for housing. This is America. We can build 4 million units of low income and affordable housing. We can lower rents. This is America. We should not be the only major nation on earth not to guarantee health care to all people as a human right. The function of the health, health care system, it's not to make billions in profits for the drug companies and the insurance companies. It is to provide quality care to all. We can do it. We do not have to pay 10 times more for prescription drugs than do the people in other countries. We can take our the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, cut prescription drug prices in hell.
- [69:21]
Ben Meiselas
And then from that same tour, Congresswoman AOC doing an incredible job as well. She's always met the moment, but here she is.
- [69:31]
AOC
But I'm here to remind you that we are not powerless in this moment. People are starting to put the pieces together and ironically, the most divisive forces in our country are actually bringing more of us together than before. And that's important. And I want to let you all know in every single stop that Bernie and that Bernie and I have had in the last couple days. We were in Nevada a couple days ago, we were in Greeley, Colorado. Way out there in Colorado. Colorado. We went to Denver. Every single stop has completely blown out all attendance projections. 3200 people in Las Vegas. Out in Greeley, we went to a Republican congressman's district, Gabe Evans, who you know, he's, he just got elected. He just got elected. Usually your first three job three months on the job job. You're on your best behavior. This guy hasn't held a town hall once. So we said, you know what, let's go out there. We'll hold our own town hall. We thought, wildest dreams out there in Greeley. We thought maybe 2,000 people showed up, would show up. 11,000 people came out to Greeley. Then we went to Denver. And now in Denver, Colorado, again, our wildest dream. We were like, maybe we can get like, what if we got like 20,000 people out in Denver last night? 34,000 people in Denver showed up.
- [71:18]
Ben Meiselas
Powerful, powerful stuff right there. And I don't even think it's worth showing you the clip. I'll do a whole other take on it. But what Pete Heth is now saying is that the Atlantic was lying. It's all fake news. It's all one big lie. All right, I'll show it to you. I just, I gotta come with receipts. Just so you can be like, really? I, I, I gotta come with the receipts. Here, let's play one question.
- [71:42]
AOC
Can you share how your information about.
- [71:45]
Ben Meiselas
War plans against the Houthis in Yemen.
- [71:48]
AOC
Was shared with a journalist in the Atlantic and were those details classified?
- [71:53]
Pete Hegseth
So I, you're talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so called journalist who's made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again to include the, I don't know, the hoaxes of Russia, Russia, Russia, or the fine people on both sides hoax, or suckers and losers hoax. So this is the guy that pedals garbage. This is what he does. I would love to comment on the Houthi campaign because of the skill and.
- [72:24]
Ben Meiselas
Courage of our troops.
- [72:25]
Pete Hegseth
I've monitored it very closely from the beginning. And you see, we've been managing four years of deferred maintenance under the Trump administration. Our troops, our sailors were getting shot at as targets our ships couldn't sail through. And when they did shoot back, it was purely defensively or at shacks in Yemen. President Trump said, no more. We will re establish deterrence. We will open freedom of navigation, and we will ultimately decimate the Houthis, which is exactly what we're doing as we speak from the beginning. Overwhelmingly.
- [73:00]
Jordy Meiselas
These people then are, are so reprehensible. I just want to say, never take any responsibility. Everything's just a game to them. Everything is attack, attack, attack, attack. Try to deflect. Pete Hegseth put our national security at risk due to his incompetence. And he continues to treat this like he is on his Fox News Morning show, which is maybe the only thing that he is qualified to do if that he's not qualified one bit to have any say in our government, any say over our troops. What a disgraceful, disgraceful response by Hegseth. Quite frankly, he should resign. He put our people at risk. This is a disgrace. This person is completely unfit to lead. And that response is just heinous. And by the way, all the things that he named are more true things that happened that they continue to deflect about. Yeah, the Russia, Russia, Russia stuff. Yeah. When Donald Trump called our troops suckers and losers. All of these things that have been proven to be true. And you try to then throw this journalist under the bus after the White House has already admitted that this was true, after the National Security Council has already confirmed the authenticity of these text messages. These text messages in which you were discussing America's war plans over text message instead of doing it in a skiff or another secure way. This person, these people are such disgraces. I cannot wait for the day where they are all gone and they get what they deserve. This is so absolutely atrocious. They should not be in power whatsoever. We need the people out there to rise up. We need democracy to continue to fight back. We need democracy to win. We need to get these people out of office and we need to elect people to replace them who actually share American values and are able to lead with American values.
- [74:53]
Eric Swalwell
Two quick things, because I know. Two quick things, Brett, because I know. I know we're rapping Hegseth in that clip for the. For the video watchers. And if you're on audio, go check out the video of that. He looks like an unhinged lunatic. Like from the deep breath that he takes before he answers. Smugness on his face as he's delivering answer. Okay, now the other thing, the answer. All he did. That was the worst strategy ever to try and discredit a story that's one already been confirmed by your people to a story that has receipts. There are screenshots of the text. Did he just fabricate those screenshots? So all he did with that argument was now further confirm that Russia, Russia, Russia, both sides. All those stories are even more true than ever. Because if that's the crux of your argument, Hegseth, well, you've proven to be a fool once again, because in this instance, there are receipts that are printed. What are you doing, buddy?
- [75:49]
Ben Meiselas
You look like he's. He's relying on the fact that the corporate media is. Oh, it's a one day story. Then they'll move on and Trump will do the another post about the portrait and how ugly he looks. And then he'll talk about annexing another country and then we'll move on. Guess what? Remember that movie, Captain Phillips? I'm the captain now. Remember that line? It's. It's a new media environment. Okay? There's a reason that the Midas Touch Network and the Midas Touch Podcast is. Yes, beating Rogan, yes, beating fox News on YouTube because people want the truth. People are pissed off. And we are using this network to highlight all of those town halls that Democrats are showing up to. To the cowardice of Republicans running away from their town halls. Remember how the corporate media would never show the Bernie and AOC rallies? Well, now that we're bigger than them, guess what we're showing The Bernie rallies. The AOC rallies. Any Democrat who wants to go into a red district, we're going to highlight those rallies or go to your district and speak truth to power. We are going to highlight people fighting for people and not the ones running away from the people. This is a moment where courage will be rewarded. It is obvious who the cowards, who the traitors, who the real losers are and who are the people betraying our American ideals. We will keep fighting every day here at the Midas Touch Network and the Midas Touch Podcast for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That's where we stand with you. You, the Midas mighty. Want to remind everybody to hit subscribe. Help us get to 5 million subscribers, please. If you can check out Midasplus.com make sure you spell Midas correctly. M E I-A S P L U S.com Midasplus.com check that out. And also patreon.com Midas Touch if you want to meet Brett, Jordy and myself in a zoom meeting, go to patreon.com Midas Touch Midas Touch. And check that out. Thank you all so much. Much. Thank you to our mods for your hard work. Thank you to the Midas Mighty, every one of you for the work you do for our democracy every day. Audio listeners subscribe on YouTube. YouTube listeners subscribe on audio. Leave a five star review to the audio podcast as well. Don't let those Rogan people try to spam us with negative reviews. We need you to give us a five star review. If you think. Of course it is a five star show. Oh, thank you everybody. A lot of news we covered in a short period of time, but I think we covered most of it. All. Thank you everybody for watching Jordy. Any final words?
- [78:38]
Eric Swalwell
Shout out to the Midas.
- [78:39]
Ben Meiselas
My day we will get it right.
- [78:58]
Eric Swalwell
Can't get enough Midas? Check out the Midas plus substack for ad. Free articles, reports, podcasts, daily recaps from Ron Filipowski, and more. Sign up for free now@midasplus.com.
- [79:19]
AOC
You'Re pretty smart when people talk about you. Too smart comes up a lot. So why are you trying to prove them wrong? Why aren't you pushing the limits of science and powering the nuclear engines of the world's most powerful Navy? If you were born for it, isn't it time to make a smart choice? You can be smart, or you can be nuke smart. Become a nuclear engineer@navy.com nukesmart America's Navy forged by the sea.