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- [00:00]
Ben Meiselas
The MAGA Republicans who went on the weekend shows were just a total utter disaster, blowing up on live TV and saying the most ridiculous, dangerous and outrageous things. For example, you had Peter Navarro, one of Donald Trump's top trade advisors. He was asked, what's your message to the American people about these tariffs? Because people are getting hurt. By the way, this was on Fox and Navarro said, my message message is that tariffs are a tax cut, that tariffs are great, that tariffs will make you rich. All lies. But here's Navarro. How do you know he's lying? He's opening up his mouth. Play this clip, you heard Lucas's reporting there where the President says he doesn't care if the prices go up on US Cars. So what's the message to the US Consumer? The message is that tariffs are tax cuts. Tariffs are jobs, tariffs are national security. Tariffs are great for America. Tariffs will make America great again. Folks, I've said it before and let me say it again. A tariff is a literal tax on the consumer. It is passed by the importer onto the consumer. And it is what is causing all of this destruction in our economy right now. Which, which was very easy to predict it was going to happen because in the past it was the cause of Great Depressions. And Donald Trump is now bringing the United States not just into a Great recession, but a Great Depression. So then CNN and other corporate news, they try to bring on the Republicans who pretend to be not maga, you know, the Republicans who pretend to be the normies, but they're actually MAGA through and through. For example, MAGA Republican Sen. James Lankford, he's asked about these tariffs and he knows the destruction the tariffs are causing to the economy and that it's a wrecking ball. So the way he tries to describe it is he's like, you know, when you're remodeling your kitchen or you're remodeling your living room, it's kind of like that. It's gonna feel messy at first and perhaps uninhabitable, but we'll get through this. Just like your kitchen being remodeled. Play this clip term.
- [02:34]
James Lankford
I feel like in some ways in the economy this is kind of like a kitchen remodel or a bath remodel. There's a bit of a mess at the beginning, but everybody has a long term look of where we're headed. It's going to be noisy for a little while, but we all know where we're headed trying to reduce the prices for Americans and increase jobs.
- [02:51]
Catherine Clark
Well, on that note, in your book that I mentioned, you write that Americans voted for Donald Trump because they, quote, decided the nation needed a turnaround election. In this past week, inflation ticked back up. Stocks went down again. Americans are increasingly pessimistic about the economy, worried about a recession, it's harder to find a job. Is Trump failing to deliver on the kind of turnaround Americans were hoping for that you write about?
- [03:23]
James Lankford
We are less than three months into the administration at this point, so I think we've got a ways to go to be able to determine anything related to that. This is the first.
- [03:31]
Ben Meiselas
Hey, James Lakeford. I don't think a lot of Americans can relate to even that reference of kitchens being remodeled because most Americans, James, can't afford a home right now because of Donald Trump's destructive economic policies. Donald Trump did promise that he was gonna make things more affordable on day one, that he was gonna drive down prices, would be more affordable. There would be so many jobs, we wouldn't know what to do about it. He said there would be no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime. But instead of doing all of these things, he's fighting for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for the billionaires, destroying Medicaid, taking away $880 billion from Medicaid, destroying the Department of Education, destroying Veterans affairs, engaging in a hostile takeover of the federal government, and continuing to fantasize out loud about conquering Canada, Greenland, Panama and other locations. Now, Howard Lutnick, you know, Mr. Sham. Wow. It's a shammy. It's a sham. Wow. Donald Trump's Commerce Secretary, who literally would not avoid being on like the guy was on media appearance all day, every day the past few weeks. Well, he decides not to show up on the weekend. Running away from the cameras like a pathetic coward right before Trump's Liberation Day, where all these additional tariffs are gonna kick into effect. Here they are on Face the Nation on CBS saying, we try to invite Howard, but he didn't wanna show. Play this clip.
- [05:11]
Howard Lutnick
We had hoped to speak to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick today, but the White House declined our request. We do hope to have him on in the near future to discuss tariffs. Our folk.
- [05:20]
Ben Meiselas
Next up, we've got a video of Donald Trump's chief economic advisor, Kevin Hassett, who's been wrong about literally every single thing his entire career. This is the guy who said, buy, buy, buy right before the dot com crash. I mean, the guy literally is a counter indicator. You do the opposite of what this guy says. A total fool. But here he is leading Economic policy. And here he says, look, I don't really know what we're doing. He goes, he admits it. He goes, I can't give you any forward looking guidance on what's going to happen this week. Play this clip.
- [05:58]
Howard Lutnick
And so President Trump has a long run vision of a golden age of America and we're working really, really hard to get it out there in time. But I can't give you any forward looking guidance on what's going to happen this week. The President is, has got a heck of a lot of analysis before him and he's going to make the right choice, I'm sure.
- [06:15]
Ben Meiselas
Yeah, that was a direct quote. I can't give you any forward looking guidance. That's literally your job to give forward looking guidance on what's going to happen. Utterly, utterly pathetic. Then as I said, they try to strut out their normie Republicans who aren't normal at all. They're MAGA Republican, obsequious, subservient fascist clowns. No offense to real clowns, cuz it's a real profession. These are fascist clowns like MAGA Republican Representative Jody Arrington. And Jody Arrington goes, yeah, this is what we wanted, disruption. We're gonna get disruption, everybody. Disruption in your lives. It's gonna be uncomfortable. But guys, this is what we all voted for. We voted for hardship, right? This is what he literally goes on and says, I'll just show you in his own words. Play this clip.
- [07:11]
Howard Lutnick
Chairman, one of the top advisers to the President, Peter Navarro, said this morning that tariffs are tax cuts. Are they? Well, in the long run, I think having an unfair trade dynamic at the current point is suppressing growth, it's suppressing wages and suppressing job creation. So it has an adverse impact on our economy. There's no way, Major, to reset the trade dynamic that we've allowed to persist in an unfair way for so long without some disruption. The President's been very transparent about it and he deployed the same tactics now back in his first administration successfully.
- [07:56]
Ben Meiselas
Now I'd like to show for you, if I can, what some of the Democrats were saying on the weekend shows. For example, Democratic Senator Warner, he makes a great point, simple point. He goes, trump's crazy. This is a crazy foreign policy. What the hell are they doing? Play this clip.
- [08:15]
Mark Warner
Part of America, the going against Denmark, who is a NATO member who rules Greenland currently. This whole approach that Trump has of treating our allies, I mean, we turn Canada into a enemy, our allies as not allies, and suddenly wanting to buddy up with Putin in Russia or with Xi and China. Think about it. America, two weeks ago, three weeks ago, voted with Russia, North Korea, I think it was Belarus against everyone else who was a democracy, because we wouldn't acknowledge that Putin started the war in Ukraine. This is a crazy foreign policy. And America is stronger when we have allies. America, Al is weaker if we don't have that intelligence sharing, if we don't have these mutual defense pacts that Nash.
- [09:12]
Ben Meiselas
I had Democratic Congresswoman and Democratic Whip Catherine Clark on the Midas Touch show this weekend, and here's what Congresswoman Clark told me about Trump's expansionist policies. Play this clip.
- [09:27]
Catherine Clark
And my real fear is it is gonna be generations for us to recover our place in this world, our leadership as a democr democracy that values the rule of law and this sort of expansion policy. Denmark, Canada, they're now the enemies, the states that we have to draw a hard line with. And, you know, we elected this strong man who rolls over on his back for Putin, abandons our democratic ally in Ukraine, and we're sending the vice president and his wife to a contained base in, in Greenland because the people of Greenland don't want them outside of that base. I mean, what are we doing then?
- [10:16]
Ben Meiselas
You had Democratic Senator Bennett on Meet the Press, by the way, at the same time that Donald Trump called into Kristen Welker. Not on Meet the Press, but Donald Trump talked about that. He's not joking. He wants a third term. He wants to be a dictator. Just another blip in the Trump regime news cycle that he's not leave office. He said he wants to conquer Greenland. He's going to take it one way or another, and doesn't rule out military force. Oh, Donald Trump also said that he could care less, that prices are going up, doesn't matter to him, and he doesn't even know what signal is. That's what he told Kristen Welker anyway. Here's Democratic Senator Bennett. Play this clip. Do you believe that directors Ratcliffe and Gabbard were truthful when they testified before your committee?
- [11:05]
Howard Lutnick
No, I think they lied repeatedly to our committee and to the House Committee. Kristen, let me try to make this as simple as I can. I think the American people know this. If this material was not classified, literally nothing that I've ever heard as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee over all these years is classified. I wish I could say that we have deep, dark secrets that are even more classified than this, but it's not true. This targeting information in real time, everybody knows it's classified. And I think that's why you see, the American people, no matter what party they're in, are so deeply concerned about not just what happened, but I think the lies that are being told about what happened.
- [11:49]
Ben Meiselas
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- [14:35]
Rahm Emanuel
I don't know why he said it, but. Well, first of all, I don't know if he wants it, but I worked for President Obama when we inherited what's called the Great Recession and it was this close to going and tipping into a depression. We stopped it, pulled the economy back. I worked for President Clinton, who inherited a recession. We worked as an administration. The president's led them to pull the country out of a recession and to then build an economy that became in both cases, examples of great growth and job creation. This administration, through their tariffs and chaos are driving a healthy. We just got today. You're asking me today they showed the report the economy was doing well and had forward momentum. Tariffs go up, 401ks go down, consumers have pulled back. And when the consumers pull back, the economy tips over stats straight. And he said, well, there could be a recession. I've never seen anybody be so cavalier with people's own personal economy and economic security for the working middle class of this country. But he said it. I'm using his words and his Treasury Secretary. They basically, oh, that could be the consequence.
- [15:51]
Ben Meiselas
I don't know.
- [15:51]
Rahm Emanuel
I work for two administrations tirelessly that worked every day, 24 hours, seven days a week, 365 days a year to get out of a recession and to build the economy. You have an administration that shrugs their shoulder and says, well, there could be a little pain here. Well, if you have 11 billionaires in your cabinet, what do they know about pain? For a family that can't make it to the 31st of the month on their paycheck and is trying to get it to Walmart or to Target and they are buying less and less and less, as noted by the Walmart CEO, this is real economics. And I think one of the things that's missed in the past is those who are doing well were actually healthy as consumers. The rest of the consumers in our society, we're actually living in a recession. Our job is to help them economically, not hurt them.
- [16:45]
Ben Meiselas
Now, again, while all of this is going on, Lara Trump, Donald Trump's daughter in law she's now a host on state regime media known as Fox. And she calls in Doug Burgum, one of Trump's Cabinet secretaries, Interior Cabinet secretary. And here they talk about the things that Americans are really concerned about right now, like the efforts by the MAGA Republicans in the House and the Senate to try to get Donald Trump's face on Mount Rushmore. Here, play this clip here. Is in charge of the National Park Service. The National Park Service is in charge of Mount Rushmore. A lot of people wonder, will we ever see President Trump's face on Mount Rushmore? What do you think?
- [17:31]
Howard Lutnick
Well, they certainly have room for it there. They just signed the order last week. On July 3, 2026, we're gonna have fireworks at Mount Rushmore and we've got a lot of amazing USA 250 events planned from across the, across the country.
- [17:48]
Ben Meiselas
Now, finally, I'd like to share with you these clips. I thought they were quite interesting and illuminating. This is Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief from the Atlantic. He made his rounds on some of the weekend shows and Meet the Press particularly. And here Jeffrey Goldberg was asked by Kristen Welker, what do you make of the Trump, you were on these text threads. They, they inadvertently put you on the text message thread. So Jeffrey, what do you make about the Trump regime saying that you know all of these dates, locations of where the strikes were going to take F18, MQ nines? They're saying it's not classified. So what do you say, Jeffrey, when they say these war plans weren't classified? War plans? Play this clip. Believe the information on that group chain was classified.
- [18:45]
Jeffrey Goldberg
Well, let me answer it this way. When, when the texts are coming over as I'm watching them UNFOLD WORLD It's 11:44am on a Saturday. Pete Hegg said this, promising that, that US warplanes are taking off in 30 minutes to bomb enemy targets that we know are protected by anti aircraft batteries. Okay. So if that's not the most sensitive information, the most secret information in the world, I simply don't know what the meaning of classified or secret or top secret is. Because American pilots were about to fly into possibly a deadly situation and the Secretary of Defense is telling everyone on the group chat, which by the way included me, that these pilots are about to go into harm's way. Talking about them going after they come back is a different thing entirely. But letting that information out on a commercial messaging app seems very odd. So I was sort of aghast when I'm, when I'm watching this unfold on my phone.
- [19:54]
Ben Meiselas
And then finally you have Jeffrey Goldberg on Mike Waltz, a national security advisor. And Jeffrey Goldberg is asked, you know, what Walt is saying happened, Jeffrey, Jeffrey, is that your phone number was. Was sucked in to his signal chat. Sucked in. He says that's what Mike Walls actually said. Sucked in. So, Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of Atlantic, were you sucked into this signal chat? Watch Jeffrey Goldberg's answer. Play the clip. I'm sure everybody out there has had a contact where you. It was said one person and then a different phone number, but you've never talked to him before. So how's the number on your phone? I mean, I'm not an expert in any of this, but it's just curious. How's the number on your phone? Well, if you have somebody else's contact and then it. And then somehow someone knew that, it gets sucked in. Jeffrey, what do you make of those explanations?
- [20:52]
Jeffrey Goldberg
Well, this isn't the matrix. Phone numbers don't just get sucked into other phones. I don't know what he's talking about there. You know, very frequently in journalism, the most obvious explanation is the explanation. My phone number was in his phone. Because my phone number is in his phone. He's telling everyone that he's never met me or spoken to me. That's simply not true. I understand why he's doing it, but, you know, this has become a somewhat farcical situation.
- [21:25]
Ben Meiselas
Wow, wow, wow, folks. Yeah, I think it's so important that I play these clips for you. That's kind of the catchphrase. Play the clip. Play the clip. Because when I was once a trial lawyer, I would show the jury exhibits. I would say, here's what was said. Here's the evidence. Form your opinions. I have an opinion on my closing argument to the jury. I'd share with them, of course, my opinion and how I wanted the jury to decide because I have opinions. I'm human, right? But I want to show you the clip so you could assess this stuff. And I think we do a good job here of including the full context of these clips. I want to give a shout out to our friends at Snap Stream. So one of our editors, his name is Asen, he uses Snapstream to help get those clips. He monitors all the news networks. He gets the clips on Snapstream and in the description below. If you're interested in trying out Snapstream and seeing how it works, you should. You should check it out. Click the link for Snapstream. Thanks. Thanks to the team at Snapstream. Great technology. Helps us out a, well, a lot. Here as well at the Midas Touch Network. Anybody Anyway hit subscribe help us get to 5 million subscribers. Thanks for watching. Can't get enough Midas? Check out the Midas plus substack for ad Free articles, reports, podcasts, daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, and more. Sign up for free now at midasplus Dot.