MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 10/14/25

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We have a lot to discuss on today's episode of the Midas Touch podcast.

You have the United States government still in shutdown mode with no end in sight.

Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans refusing to talk with Democrats, yet alone even hold negotiations, as Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans want to rip health care away from tens of millions of Americans.

Want to talk about what took place in the Middle East today, the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

We'll talk about Donald Trump's speech that he gave in front of the Knesset, as well as his speech in Egypt.

I thought Donald Trump's speech was very bizarre.

He wanted to make this all about himself, me, me, me, me, me.

And he was spiking the football when we're just in one phase of phase one and Donald Trump refuses to even acknowledge if he believes that there should be a two-state solution.

We're going to talk about that also this weekend, October 18th, the No Kings protests will be taking place.

And already Donald Trump and MAGA have their talking points and saying that the peaceful No Kings protests are pro-Antifa, pro-Hamas events.

And this as Donald Trump is creating a database of anybody he believes to be an enemy of the people or enemy from within.

They actually have an office compiling a list of people out in Virginia.

We'll talk about that and more.

I'm Ben Micellis.

This is the Midas Touch podcast.

Brett and Jordy, we've got a lot to discuss today, brothers.

We certainly got a lot to discuss from global affairs, the things going on here at home.

You know, certainly a whole lot of things that I want to say, a lot of things that I know that all Americans right now are concerned about and rightfully so.

We got these massive protests coming up this weekend, the No Kings protests.

I've heard from so many of you that so many of you are going.

One of the things that I love is when you tag us in the photos, when you're at these events, especially when you have Midas touch on your signs and you're spreading the word in addition to protesting, I think that is the coolest thing.

I'm looking forward to speaking about the latest updates with the ceasefire.

So great to see the hostages home.

Really heartwarming to see that footage.

So much more to be done, but it's so great that we're able to see that and at least for this moment in time see an end to the hostilities and an end to that horrific horrific fighting that we saw there in Gaza.

Jordy, I, like I said, we have a whole lot to say, a whole lot to talk about.

I want to pass it to you first, and then I want to get into it.

No, thanks, B.

What's up, Midas Mighty?

I can't wait for today's show as well.

A lot, a lot, a lot to get into.

I'm excited.

Ben, why don't we just start off?

Where do you want to lead us off today, big bro?

Let's get into it right away.

I think let's talk about the undisputed facts.

I think it's an undisputed fact that a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to end what's taking place is a good thing.

I think the atrocities that we've seen take place in Gaza have been really beyond words that I could even describe the atrocities as tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians have been killed.

And at the same time, Hamas has held these remaining 20 living hostages for quite some time.

And it has been

an incredibly important thing to bring back the hostages.

I think those are undisputed facts.

I think at the same time, I've seen so much of the corporate news coverage spiking the football as though there's peace in the Middle East now and everything has been solved.

And I think that's irresponsible reporting on what has actually

transpired.

I mean, I think it's a ceasefire, and there have been dozens of ceasefires in the history of that specific region.

Former President Biden was able to secure the release of about 140 hostages.

And I think when you add up the 20 today and eight before, I think Trump was able to return about 28 hostages.

We want hostages being returned.

We want the atrocities in Gaza to stop.

I think it is important, though, that, again, we don't spike the football on this moment.

We have to recognize what also is taking place.

I mean, Hamas now is continuing to patrol the streets.

Hamas has said that it has no intention of disarming.

At the same time, the defense minister of Israel says that very soon they are going to be resuming attacks on Hamas-related infrastructure, as they frame it, and tunnels.

So you have Hamas not disarming, patrolling the streets in Gaza.

The IDF's head saying that they are going to resume attacks.

And then Donald Trump saying that he has, when asked about a two-state solution, he doesn't provide a response.

He He says, I'm just going to let happen what's in the deal.

And Trump has promised one set of things to Israel, like this 20-point plan.

He's agreed to kind of an alteration of that plan with Hamas and with Arab countries.

And so I just think it's important to reflect structurally what's taking place.

place because again, Donald Trump rolled into the Middle East today.

He spoke in front of the Knesset in Israel.

Then he went to Egypt and he like made it like a birthday party for himself, himself, like a celebration.

And he made all the world leaders show up and basically say how great he is.

Then he gave this long rambling speech.

And corporate news bought into the

Trump narrative, hook line and sinker, when the narrative should be focused on the region.

This is a good day for the region, but that's it's a good day and it's a ceasefire.

And I think we have to have responsible conversations about what is to come.

And I think so much of the Trump era has been, or the error in the Trump era by the media, which I think is intentional, is this

congratulatory, this buying into the narrative without us observing, well, what's going to happen now?

If you don't agree to a free Palestine, if you don't agree to a two-state solution,

what are we really talking about?

And when do the hostilities resume?

And how do we prevent those hostilities from resuming?

So I think that's an important point that i want to say from the outset let me pause there because i'm going to show clips but that's my two cents of how i think we have to report on this responsibly yes good day very good day that should be bipartisan but we also have to be responsible and recognizing wait a minute trump's not talking about a two-state solution hamas is saying they're not going to disarm israel saying they're going to blow up the tunnel what are what what has happened that's all no i think that's i think that's a totally fair point, Ben.

And what I try to do with any situation,

in anything, I think it keeps me honest, it keeps me fair, is I think if what's happening right now happened under the Biden administration, how would I be feeling?

If I woke up in a coma and I heard this news, what would my reaction be?

And my reaction would be one of happiness, one of this is a great day, a great news.

I don't think you could watch that footage of the Israeli hostages coming home, hugging their loved ones after being in captivity for so long, and not feel something and not see those, you know, when you see those videos of the Palestinians and they're also celebrating that they're, you know, no longer at the whims of this brutal assault from the Israeli government.

When you look at them and see them dancing in the streets and things like that, you have to be happy.

You have to say, oh, what an excellent thing.

You know, this is exactly what we want to see.

Now,

what I want to be sure about is how now are we going to ensure that this is a lasting and durable peace in the region.

Because I want to remind everybody like Ben did that we've been through these ceasefires before.

In November 2023, there was a ceasefire under the Biden administration where 50 Israeli hostages were released, 150 Palestinians were released.

That ended up lasting seven days.

In January 2025, just before Donald Trump took office, if you remember, there was another ceasefire, and this was part of a multi-phase agreement by the Biden administration.

I'm sure that sounds familiar because we are now in another multi-phase agreement by this administration.

And phase one in that agreement included a six-week full and complete ceasefire, a withdrawal from populated areas, a release of hostages, which at that time included women, the elderly, people who were injured, and also was met with a huge surge of aid to the region.

And we never made it into phase two of that plan either.

And so I just want to urge caution here because phase one is kind of the easy part.

It's a big part.

And I don't want to downplay it at all because these families have been away for their loved ones for so long and people have been getting killed for so long.

So I don't want to downplay the importance of phase one.

It's incredibly important that these hostages are now home.

However, I want to be sure that we're not going to get into this again.

And there are some things already that are concerning me, seeing already Hamas fill in this power vacuum that's been left in some of these areas.

I've already seen horrific videos, which I wish I could unsee, quite frankly, of Hamas executing Palestinians in the streets right now, because they were saying they were collaborators with Israel.

You know, they make up all these things in order to kill their own people.

And so, people who thought that they were, you know, going to be able to celebrate, and now we have peace coming, they are getting killed at the hands of this terrorist group who is running their government.

That concerns me.

Hamas is showing no signs that they want to disarm.

That concerns me.

That's a key part.

of moving into phase two.

So, phase one, extremely important.

I think this is, in fact, a day of celebration, but I think we should be cautious when we position this as, oh, now we have peace in the Middle East and now it's a peaceful region and everyone's getting along and everything is going great, because we just don't know that.

We cannot put the cart before the horse.

We cannot count our chickens before they hatch, especially in a situation that is life or death for so many people.

That's my view as to what's going on.

I know it's complex.

I know in many ways, no matter what I say,

there's going to be a word I use that somebody says, how dare you say that or whatever.

But that's my opinion.

It comes from a place of empathy and it comes from a place of wanting peace that lasts in the region, that wants people not dying, that wants people to be able to live in harmony with their families without the threat of attacks, without the threats of being bombed, without the threats of being taken away in the middle of the night.

These are all things that are of the utmost importance to me.

And I don't care.

in any way, shape, or form who is the president of the United States when things like that happen.

exactly exactly and brett i'm going to clip you out of context and post on social media so the entire internet could be managed i'm sure that's what people do so incredibly complex absolutely and look i agree undoubtedly it's good news whenever you're bringing hostages home that's that's my opinion however

you know is this going to hold and have they actually thought about a phase two it's a pretty big however right there because to what you guys said at all your points all signs are pointing to no you have Hamas out there like Ben said they're not going to disarm that's that's what they said Israel is also accusing Hamas of not handing over all of the hostages and so like I just want to caution like this thing is fragile and I'm certainly hesitant to spike the football like so many in corporate media are actively doing right now which this this thing is fragile right now and then my second point here is Biden had a peace deal in place over a year ago and it was widely reported that Trump at the time told Netanyahu to tank it because it would hurt Trump politically and make Biden look good.

Think about how many people died in those 12 months or so, how many children in Gaza were murdered and how many extra hours and days the hostages had to be held, all because Trump didn't care how fast a peace deal was actually reached, but rather who it was that achieved it.

So

that's my two cents here.

You know, caution,

cautiously optimistic here, but I don't know what the phase two of this looks like and that gives me cause for concern and here's the thing Jordy I'm not sure Donald Trump knows what the phase two looks like of course he has this you know big kind of 30-point plan or whatever he calls it But whenever he's pressed on these issues, he doesn't seem to have an answer and that's what concerns me to say the least.

And I just to clarify for you know people who are like, what?

I thought all the hostages came home.

Well, they're also the bodies of deceased hostages, which is what Jordi's referring to.

And four were returned by Hamas, but they were supposed to return 28.

And so now the Israeli government is saying, Hey, where are the other 24 individuals who are supposed to be returned for us?

I saw a bit of misinformation, disinformation that was spreading, saying, Have you noticed that there's no women who were in this batch of hostages and implying that they were all killed?

They were released during the Biden administration, the women who were left in that group.

So I do want to clarify that as well.

But for example, we played this clip the other day.

Donald Trump was asked about a two-state solution.

and this is one of the moments where you know if you have somebody who really has a firm grasp on what comes next in the region that to me you know arguably the most important part is okay we've done this phase one how do we get to phase two how do we build a lasting peace you got to know are we doing a two-state solution are we not doing a two-state solution how's it going to work what's the governance going to be like what trump was asked about this and this is what he said just a few days ago

much involved in making it making it as good as possible.

And what's your take now on a two-state solution, sir?

Just to follow up on that, what is your view now on a two-state solution for the?

I don't have a view.

I'm going to go with what they agreed to.

I don't have a view.

I'm going to go with what they agreed to.

Aren't you the one who's supposedly brokered this?

And

isn't that the fundamental question here?

Like, I don't understand.

Other than on the Midas Touch Network, why that clip isn't the main one that's highlighted?

Because what are we really talking about here?

I mean, if you ask me the question, should there be a free Palestine?

I can answer the question very directly and say absolutely yes.

If you ask me, do you believe in a two-state solution?

I could answer the question very directly and say yes.

I believe that there should be a free Palestine next to a free Israel.

If you ask me the question, do you want to see Hamas running the free Palestine?

I could answer the question, absolutely not.

If you ask me, then, how do you deal with a highly complex situation to remove Hamas in a difficult situation like that?

You know, I would say I'd need to then speak to some people who are perhaps smarter, you know,

in it than me to figure that piece of it out.

But that's kind of the fundamental question.

Because when Donald Trump was asked the question, well, okay, so you don't believe in a two-state solution or you don't know what that even means concerning.

But then as he was flying into the Middle East, he was asked this.

So, hey, Donald, one of the things we're seeing happening right now as we speak is Hamas is rearming itself as a police force and they're shooting people in the cities to reestablish their control so what's your message to Hamas and Trump goes oh they're there to stop the problems they've been open about it we've given them approval to do it

okay what I mean what am I missing here here just play the clip of him saying that so you hear him in his own words here play this clip of Hamas uh rearming instituting themselves as a palestinian police force taking you know shooting

rivals what does their message

and they've been open about it and we gave them approval for a period of time

you have to understand

they've lost probably 60 000 people that's a lot of retribution They've lost 60,000 people and the ones that are living right now were in many cases very very young when this all started.

And we are having them watch that there's not going to be big crime or some of the problems that you have when you have areas like this that have been literally demolished.

You know, you have 2 million people, and probably it'll be less than that, but you have close to 2 million people going back to buildings that have been demolished.

And a lot of bad things can happen.

So

we want it to be safe.

I think it's going to be fine.

I think it's going to be fine.

We want want it to be safe, which means Hamas will now stay in control.

I mean, just as an observer of that,

that would seem to make no sense to me.

And also, when he cites these numbers of, you know, 60,000 and Trump's one to, you know, speak of very high numbers, one of the things that we know, and he...

admits to it, but doesn't realize that he's admitted to it is when the people are going back to their communities, they're seeing that their homes are blown up because a lot of the casualties were innocent Palestinian people.

I mean, the horrific atrocities that occurred there.

Again, it's unspeakable what's transpired and what's taken place.

And then, where the

Trump-Israel version of this deal differs from the Trump-Arab country, Trump-Hamas version is over this idea that the Israel version is Hamas disarms.

The Hamas version is basically they temporarily freeze rebuilding, but it has nothing to do with disarming.

And the leaders of Hamas have said they're not disarming.

Then one of the points in Donald Trump's plan is eventually he becomes the leader of Gaza.

That it becomes, that Trump leads the council that runs Gaza.

Now, do you think that that's something that Hamas is going to agree to and allow, that Donald Trump and Netanyahu running Gaza?

And is that also why Donald Trump doesn't want to answer the question about a two-state solution?

So what happened?

Is he going to show up there?

How is he going to rule Gaza?

What does that even mean?

What does that even mean?

And again, to me, if you're reporting on that, by the way, I'm not suggesting that I have all the answers, okay?

I am suggesting that on certain clear points, I can reflect to you the moral clarity that I think you will be asking me to answer the question.

Should there be a free Palestine?

Yes.

Should there be a two-state solution?

Yes.

Should Hamas be running it?

No.

You know, so to me, I'm addressing those issues, but Trump's not even addressing those issues.

But then what happens after, you know, and then, and the media wasn't asking those questions.

And then they weren't really showing what was going down today.

I mean, like, you have Trump praising Victor Orban at this press conference in front of world leaders and everyone behind him.

You have Giorgio Maloney, the prime minister of Italy.

You have Prime Minister Kier Starmer behind him.

Like they're all so uncomfortable because he's praising Putin's puppet, Victor Orban, right there.

Just like, again, this is a moment that's deeply embarrassing.

Here, play this clip.

We have Hungary.

Oh, Victor, where is Victor?

Victor, Victor.

We love Victor.

Victor, I call him.

I put

the little accent on it.

You are fantastic, all right?

I know a lot of people don't agree with me, but I'm the only one that matters.

You are fantastic.

He's a great leader.

I endorsed him the last election he had, and he won by 28 points.

So

you're going to do even better this time.

If you have another election, then you're going to do great, and we appreciate it.

And we'll be hinder you 100%.

That's Hungary.

We're not behind him 100%.

We're not behind him 100%.

We're not behind him 100%, okay?

He's the Putin faction that is harming the European Union.

Behind him, you have Giorgio Maloney from the EU.

You have Kier Starmer, which was not in the EU after Brexit, but they're visibly uncomfortable at what he's saying.

And that is undercutting the entire pro-democracy.

Like, dude, wants a Nobel Peace Prize, but he's literally undercutting democracy as he stands up there.

And Orban is well behind in the polls, actually, in Hungary.

And Hungary's been a complete mess, just like Argentina, right?

All these Trump places.

Hungary, if you compare Poland and Hungary post-Soviet control, control, Poland, which went largely in a democracy direction, has a powerful economy in contrast to Hungary, where inflation was surging, bad economy, dependent on Putin's oil.

You know how Donald Trump's whole attack on the European Union is, you're getting too much oil from Putin, which is which...

Any oil from Putin is probably too much.

But Orban literally gets all of his oil from Putin.

That's the whole source of Orban's oil.

And Trump's up there praising them.

So he's undercutting the Ukraine effort while he's there and then not talking about a two-state solution.

And our corporate media doesn't address this.

Like, that's why I feel sometimes like I'm

not a crazy person.

I'm just like, what's going on?

Why aren't they evaluating what's happening?

And I don't think my observations, I'm not, no offense to me.

I don't think they're particularly spectral.

I'm just telling you what the hell they're, I'm just saying, watch that.

Like, that's not normal.

That should be something that's leading the headlines, but it's not.

Sorry, Brett.

No, it's not good.

But, you know, Trump has an affinity for people like Victor Orban, obviously.

I think he has an affinity for a lot of rulers in the Middle East as well, because I think Trump views himself as a supreme leader, as many of these leaders are, who, you know, don't need checks and balances in order to get stuff done, who could just rule with an iron fist.

Donald Trump sees that and he goes, oh, that's what real strength looks like.

That's what we need to bring into the United States.

I think we have the clips.

Maybe we could show them in a little bit of him praising Egypt and going, oh, you have the lowest crime in Egypt, everything, no crime.

Better than Democratic cities, better than democratic governors, he's saying.

Yeah, it's absurd, but like

when he's saying things like that, the subtext of it that a lot of people don't pick up on, including the media, is he's praising authoritarian rule.

And so you see what's happening over there.

And like we said, the ceasefire is fantastic news.

The release of the hostages, the exchanges, that's all fantastic news.

But you see Donald Trump kind of building up his authoritarian kind of street cred as well.

And you see all the attacks that he is unleashing on the American people here at home as well.

And it's incredibly frightening when you put that together and you kind of paint the full picture.

And for a guy who wants the Nobel Peace Prize, I'm sorry, but when there are Blackhawk helicopters flying over our cities like Chicago, when you strip away U.S.

AID funding and destroy that agency and you have 14 million people expected to die by 2030 because of your actions, when you're bombing boats indiscriminately in the Caribbean.

And we find out you say it's a Venezuelan boat, but it's actually a Colombian boat.

And you said you were going after drug runners.

And then a woman says that her husband was a fisherman and was killed.

I mean, I'm sorry.

I'm going to say not so sure about that Nobel buddy.

And no one ever ever really, no one even really talks about the fact that it's just so freaking weird that we have a president of the United States going out there ostensibly to try to win himself a Nobel Peace Prize.

Like this is like the biggest thing that he he wants.

Like he's

he's like lobbying for an award.

Like that's like the weirdest.

It's just like the weirdest thing ever that like everyone is just accepting as normal now.

You have Benjamin Netyahoo posting like AI images of Donald Trump with Nobel Peace Prizes.

Like the whole thing is just so bizarre to me.

And especially when we're dealing with such serious issues like this, but of course, Trump always picks the losers, right?

Trump always picks the Victor Orbans.

He always picks the Malays.

He always picks the people who have this sort of strongman vibe.

But in reality, it's a tackistocracy in all of these countries ruled by the dumbest people among them.

And the countries inevitably fail because these leaders actually don't know what the hell they're doing, just like, well, Donald Trump here in the United States.

1,000%.

I agree with you, Brad.

There's nothing weirder.

Well, there's a lot of things weird, but there's nothing weirder than Donald Trump begging for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Like, it's honest, like, to your point, could you imagine if Obama did this or if Bush did this?

Like, it's just, it's just such weird, bizarre behavior.

But he's a person, if you could call Trump a person,

that is deeply insecure, clearly, right?

He needs the awards.

He needs the attention.

It's why he watches the corporate media the way he does it.

So he could hear.

He's got rabbit ears.

So he could hear exactly what everyone is saying about him at all times.

And if they don't say the right thing to his liking, he's going to do a mean, true social post about it.

And he's going to be angry.

And so it's just just such an embarrassing thing for the united states of america to have

to have the leader ben to have to to have the guy in charge acting in so in such a buffoonery way yeah you know and to me on a day like today

what i would want in a leader of the united states is someone who acts with humility, right?

Someone who's humble, who says, this isn't about me, this was about the region, that yes, today was a step in the right direction, but we need to make sure that now is when the hard work begins.

That's my expectation of what a leader is.

Yeah, how about I want to thank my predecessors?

I want to thank former President Biden for putting together the framework that we were able to build upon for this release.

You know, this is how I plan on making this release actually work and last, this ceasefire actually lasts.

So we have a peace.

I want to thank so-and-so.

But no, Donald Trump has zero humility whatsoever.

And on the contrary, when he went to the Knesset, he was actually trashing our leaders.

Like, I never thought I would see the day where you have a president of the United States go to the Knesset, go to any foreign government, give a speech and trash the United States of America.

Like, how freaking anti-American do you have to be?

How dangerous do you have to be to get up there and give a MAGA rally speech at the Knesset and go, oh, the President Obama sucks and President Biden sucked.

Like, how dare you?

That's the tone you're setting right now in this moment as we're seeking peace.

And there's no leader in the world that behaves in that type of fashion.

Even like the really bad dictators and tyrants don't want to be clown themselves with that level of behavior by like trashing.

governors within your country like like like leaders within your portions of your country like again that's just fundamentally what what weak people do.

Even if you have problems with people, you want to go internationally with a united front because if you don't, you actually show weakness.

So, yeah, I mean, look, all of those people who are standing there, they're not standing there for Trump.

They're standing there for the region, and they're standing there because what America has represented to their country since World War I and World War II.

So,

that's why they're there while they're also charting a course for what a new world order looks like with a weaker United States as one pole in a multipolar world who you can't rely on the same way that you used to.

And we're seeing that play out internationally, which is a major part of our coverage on the Midas Touch network.

When we return a little bit more, we'll talk about the international stage.

Then we'll go and talk about domestic issues, what's going on here with the government shutdown, MAGA Mike Johnson's latest, I think, disastrous presser early in the day.

And then we'll talk about the no kings protests coming up and how MAGA Republicans are responding to that.

We'll take our first break of the show as a reminder.

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Benji, I just want to say real quick, you know, most people don't know.

Last week, you were dealing with a little bit of a tooth issue, but you showed up every single day, Big Bro, better than ever.

And to the untrained ear, you wouldn't even know that you had this tooth thing going on.

You were in and out of dentist's office.

Most people don't know the lengths that you go to to get these interviews and videos done.

And I just want to give you your flowers right now in front of the Midas Day.

Ben calls us the other day.

Okay, let's quick aside.

Ben calls us the other day, and he's like, I have a bone sticking through my gums.

Like, what are you talking about?

I'm like, what does that mean?

He's like, the root canal that I had the other day.

I need to go back.

There's a bone sticking through my gums.

I was like, oh, you got to take off the next couple of days, I get.

He's like, nah,

I'll do some videos when I'm back.

I'm like, I don't know you'll be able to do some.

He's like, no, I got it.

And he goes there and gets the procedure done and doesn't miss a freaking beat.

But Ben, you know, they kind of outlined that.

There was a great article written about you in The Guardian, which was incredible.

I hope everybody checks it out.

But it outlined your crazy schedule.

We all work really hard here at the network because we want to get people the facts.

We want to get people the truth.

But I think that kind of showed the work ethic that

we're working with over here.

Well, you know how Donald Trump lied about his bone spurs in order to dodge the draft?

So I actually had a bone spur in my mouth.

And

what it came from was I had my wisdom teeth pulled finally about two months ago.

And when it was healing, one of the things that could happen is that the bone from underneath kind of pops out.

And so without getting gross and just turning off our entire audience and losing everybody from watching the bone would pop out so it would it would cut my tongue and it and it felt like the worst sore throat like every swallow felt like a little shot and so every day like oh my god so painful and then i finally you know got that removed and so when i did some of the videos like the harry littman videos and others my whole mouth was numb And so I would do the whole thing.

I would do the whole thing, just totally numb.

And, you know but uh anyway that's my dental story i'm in the dentist once a week now basically

all right let's get into it uh

on donald trump on the international stage though as well literally um you know he's got the world leader standing behind him and there's a lot of ways to conduct diplomacy but this is how donald trump chooses to talk about uh italy's prime minister giorgia maloney who's standing behind him let me just show you this it's pretty embarrassing here play this clip so thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Italy, we have a woman, a young woman, who's

I'm not allowed to say it because usually it's the end of your political career if you say it.

She's a beautiful young woman.

Now, if you use the word beautiful in the United States about a woman, that's the end of your political career.

But I'll take my chances.

Where is she?

There she is.

You don't mind being called beautiful, right?

Because you are.

Thank you very much for coming.

We appreciate it.

She wanted to be here, and she's incredible, and they really respect her in Italy.

She's a very successful, very successful politician.

Again, just what a misogynistic, weird way to talk about.

I mean, regardless of what I feel about Maloney, I mean, it's again,

that's a pretty demeaning way to treat, just to treat a person.

And she did not seem happy about it.

And then you had Kier Starmer looking like this guy's like, like Kier Starmer's look is like, this guy's a crazy, like, this guy's crazy.

Like, if you could get into Kier Starmer's mind there, he's like, this is like literally a lunatic.

Like, what the hell is even going on here?

So then Donald Trump goes from saying that she's a beautiful young woman, okay, to then perpetuating the lie that we've now brought in.

close to $18 trillion from tariffs on the tariff shelf.

It was $17 trillion.

Now it's gone up to $18 trillion here.

Play this clip.

We're in the world and it is.

It's the hottest country.

So many investors are here.

We have over

So in eight months, we have over 17 trillion.

We're actually very close to 18 trillion dollars.

There's never been, as an example, the previous administration had less than $1 trillion over four years.

We're close to breaking $18 trillion in eight months.

That's pretty amazing.

No country's ever done that.

Yeah, because it's not true.

It's not true.

It's not true.

Now, finally, finally, CNN did like a fact check.

Daniel Dale

did the fact check.

What's also interesting, though, is that like that fact check is put next to like other fact checks of like things that are not of consequence when he tries to fact check like Democrats and other people all the time.

He once did a whole fact check article on us where we said that Marjorie Taylor Greene was not clapping during Zelensky's address to Congress because she wasn't clapping.

She did like

one like touch of her hand.

And I kid you not, Daniel Dale did an entire article on us and said that she was clapping because the hand touch constitutes a clap.

And we're like, first off, she wasn't clapping.

Second off, you're missing the whole point here, which is that she and these MAGA Republicans are about to try to undermine America's support of Ukraine.

Can you focus on that part of what we were saying also, which they did not do?

And we were right about what we were saying then.

So, any event, I guess I'm glad that he did the fact check.

So, the White House came back to Daniel Dale, though, with a list, and the White House list is 8.8 trillion, not even the 18 trillion, but then the 8.8 trillion includes commitments only, not actual deals, commitments, but then it's like $1 trillion commitment from Qatar.

Okay, well, Qatar's entire annual GDP is $166 billion.

Okay, so they're not giving 10 times their GDP.

The United Arab Emirates was like $1.2 trillion.

Well, their entire annual GDP is $440 billion.

So they're not giving 4x their entire GDP to the United States.

It included $500 billion from India.

There's not even a trade deal with India.

It included like $1 trillion from Japan, just an entirely made-up number, like $700 billion from Europe based on European company private investments, like like just literally fraud the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme was $66 billion Trump's doing it in plain view saying it's 18 trillion and if we've brought in 18 trillion dollars then why can't we extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies to the American people Why are people unable to afford health care if we've apparently got on the shelf $18 trillion?

And my other question is, why are we bailing out Argentina to the tune of $20 billion right now while 20 million Americans are about to lose their health care?

20 billion to Argentina, 20 million Americans.

Donald Trump says, go pound sand.

We'll talk more about what's going on in the domestic front in just a minute, but I don't want to leave out these points.

This was Donald Trump and the Knesset attacking Obama and Biden on the world stage.

I just want you to see, again, how vile this behavior is here playing this clip.

I would say November 5th was a time that we became really hot.

But once you go back a couple of years, if I were in charge and the country was doing what they were, nobody was going to ask me to speak.

Nobody asked Joe Biden to come up and speak, I guarantee you that.

And if they did, he would have turned them down, I promise you.

He didn't speak.

He didn't speak, and he didn't speak well.

But

all of the countries in the Middle East

It could have, what we're doing now, it could have happened a long time ago, but it was strangled and set back almost irretrievably by the administrations of Barack Obama and then Joe Biden.

There was a hatred toward Israel.

It was an absolute hatred.

That's how he was using the day.

And I can't emphasize enough

how much that harms the United States on the world stage when that behavior takes place.

Then when he was meeting with the leader of Egypt, Donald Trump praises Egypt versus governors in the United States as though Egypt is better than

what?

Los Angeles, California?

I mean, what?

Chicago, Illinois.

I mean, states, cities, counties in the U.S.

that literally subsidize the red states.

Red states operate like Argentina and Hungary.

They're mostly failed states, but for California, which contributes $84 billion more to the federal government than it takes,

That's a common pattern, by the way.

Los Angeles County alone would be the, if it was a state, would be the fourth largest giver or donor state to the federal government then in terms of what it takes.

Meanwhile, Texas, a red state, takes, leech, takes $75 billion more than it gives.

Broken electric grids.

We saw what happened with the disastrous flash floods, the Guadalupe River.

There's still dead children who are missing.

Texas refused to take the money from the Biden administration because it was too woke to do alarm systems, emergency warning systems about floods, which would have saved the children.

But they just, they move on.

They just cover it up.

They're going to reopen up the camp and they don't want to talk about it anymore.

No, no, it can't even have conversation.

How offensive to even bring that up to them.

But anyway, here's Donald Trump with the leader of Egypt attacking Democratic governors and saying Egypt is like better.

Here, play this clip.

We're in a country where a friend of mine is a very powerful leader.

And my friend is right here, the president, also the general you know

times I call him usually I call him the general because he's both and he's good at both and they've done a fantastic job and they have very little crime you know

because they don't play games that's why they don't play games like we do in the United States with governors that have no idea what they're doing but they don't have crime I ask about crime and they almost don't even know what I'm talking about.

So

it's a great tribute to this man.

he's done a fantastic job in bringing this country together i mean it's quite literally insane bretton jordy and midas mine i mean what are we watching there right it's just disgraceful too especially you know for the guy who everything is incredibly hyperbolic and everything is this is the greatest the best you know all the adjectives he uses for him to go around as the president of the united states the foremost representative of the United States and just constantly shit on our cities, shit on our leaders.

Like it is just so demeaning to the country.

I cannot imagine.

Can you imagine if like Macrone came to the United States and was like, so y'all heard about Paris, that hellhole, that what piece of shit, Paris?

Oh, Nice, screw that place, right?

I'm going to send in the military because the people who are running Nice, they don't know what the hell they're doing, that crap hole.

Like you'd be like, what the, what is this maniac doing?

And sometimes you got to put yourself in another position in order to fully see just how nuts it is.

But I know how, you know, I know what, I know all of you understand it, but it's just the craziest thing.

It's so anti-American, in my opinion, also.

And you could really be a leader who's uplifting the country, who's using these moments to unite the country, to talk positively about the country, to actually do things to help these cities.

But instead, you have Donald Trump who is launching attacks on these cities.

He's saying it's to help these cities, but it's certainly not.

Nobody is asking for his quote-unquote help.

He's sending Blackhawk helicopters.

He's sending federal troops.

He is flying these helicopters above apartment buildings.

People are terrorized.

They have trouble sleeping because it feels feels like there's a military presence in their cities because there is.

I mean, the whole thing is just absolutely deranged.

And you see, right now, while the entire media is out there celebrating Donald Trump, you see Trump very quickly turning the United States into an authoritarian country where he's able to do whatever he wants.

He doesn't have a check from the courts.

He doesn't have a check from the Congress.

He can just do whatever he wants, say whatever he wants.

People, his administration commit crimes on camera.

Tom Omen took 50,000 bucks for a bribe.

Oh, who cares?

And they just like, and then they go on the shows and they're so smug about it when they're asked about it.

They're demanding the press have special,

sign special pledges if they want to report on certain aspects of the government.

I mean, the stuff we're seeing right now in the United States is totally twisted.

I do got to give some credit, though, where credit is due here.

There are a number of news organizations out there who have shut down that request from the Trump administration, Ben, including The Guardian, who did the piece on you, but the New York Times, CNN, and many others have told the White House and Pete Hegseth, absolutely not.

We are not signing your damn loyalty pledge.

That's not what we do as a news organization.

And I got to say, good on them to do that.

For those who don't know, Pete Hegseth wants the news companies, wants the media to sign a pledge that any story that they write about the Department of Defense or the Pentagon, whatever, has to be run by the United States government for approvals first, even if it has nothing to do with anything that's classified whatsoever.

So, I think all these media companies need to join the companies who have already spoken out, and they need to say hell no, because what's the point of that access if you're only able to report on stuff that the government allows you to?

At that point, you are no longer a news organization.

I want to be clear, you are a propaganda arm of the United States.

And that's why, as of now, as of this recording, I think the only outlet out there that has agreed to sign this pledge for Pete Hexeth has been OAN, which is a MAGA propaganda network.

Exactly.

It's become one of my phrases that I like to say on the show, but what in the Kim John-un is that about?

I mean, just scary, Brett, the way the way that is framed right there.

And can I just say something, brothers?

November 5th, did you know November 5th?

That's when we got really hot.

We got really hot November 5th.

It's all so weird.

Don't be gaslit by anyone into thinking that any of this behavior is normal.

What is this?

2003 with Paris Hilton?

That's hot.

I always try and remember

where in this make America great again arc, like Trump is referring to.

And I think we've pretty much established

late 80s, early 90s, just based on the celebrities that they adore.

And, you know, that was Trump's heyday when he was running amok in Florida with his boy Jeffrey Epstein, released the Epstein files.

And it's just so freaking weird when he gets up there on a national stage.

It's beyond undignified.

It's beneath the office the way he behaves.

And he just goes after democratic-run cities, Brett, like in front of these other global leaders.

It's truly embarrassing and it hurts me.

It genuinely hurts me as someone who loves this country to see the person at the helm once again acting like such a buffoon.

And it's upsetting.

And I know we're all collectively going through it.

Don't be gaslit once again by anyone around you who says any of this behavior is normal.

And then lastly, Benji, I just want to hit on what you started this segment with.

Daniel Dale, I forgot about that little feud we had about the whole clapping clip.

That was a funny one, but no, no, Daniel Dale.

simpler times.

Daniel, you're wonderful.

We're not bringing that feud back up.

I'll talk to Ben after the show.

Well, look, the issue with Daniel Dale, I'm not going to fully let the feud go away.

Is

we would be analyzing what the behavior was, and then he would continuously fact-check us based on what Donald Trump said.

So we would say, here's what he's doing.

And then Daniel Dale would be like, but false.

Donald Trump has said over and over again that he's not going to be doing those things.

And I'd be like, yes, I understand that's what he said.

But can we look at what his actual actions behaved?

And by the way, to this day, that that's continued to be a through line of who Donald Trump is and how corporate media is so beholden to Donald Trump, taking him at his word and at face value when you can.

He's a liar.

It's known.

And Jordy, I think Donald Trump's reference of when America was great is actually pre-World War I.

I think he has it like 1890 to like 1910.

His frame of reference for how he views the world is like 1980.

Like he's frozen in time in the 80s and the 90s when he talks about the types of energy,

the relationship of the United States to other countries, like his perspective on Japan, trading relationships.

He views the world like of what was going on then.

But I think he says

we were the greatest when

there was no income tax and it was purely based on tariffs to raise to raise money,

despite the fact that if you actually look at history, tariffs were one of the accelerating forces on the Great Depression.

We got a lot more to discuss.

I'll show you what the latest MAGA talking point is on the government shutdown, what they're saying about the no kings protests.

Democrats are fighting back.

I mean, I appreciate some of the fight back that we're actually seeing now.

We'll talk about that in more reminder.

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Benji, where are you next?

Let's talk a lot about what's going on with this government shutdown.

There seems to be no end in sight.

I mean, when Donald Trump and the IMAGA Republicans are refusing to even talk with Democrats, yet alone negotiate.

And they need Democrat votes to pass the resolution.

Just go back.

Let's make this simple.

Think about your fifth grade government class or whenever you took it, fourth grade or sixth grade.

What we learned, right, is that the parties in a multi-party system or a two-party system need to talk to each other.

So here, where Democrats are trying to talk to Republicans and Republicans saying, we don't want to talk with you, let alone negotiate with you.

We're going to do it on our own.

You can't have a functioning government where that dynamic takes place.

I know we can get more specific, obviously, about what's going on here, but I think that's a fundamental point.

And I don't want to just miss the basics.

They're governing like we don't need to actually

build consensus and speak to the other group that represents half the country.

We don't want you that's very very very disturbing it's as a concept right and then what are the democrats fighting for here an extension of the affordable care act subsidies like something that's basic whether you're in a red state or a blue state your health care costs are about to skyrocket if these subsidies are not extended donald trump and the Republicans had Trump's first term to come up with their own health care plan, and they've had nine months to come up with one one now.

It's not a healthcare plan to just go and say, we're going to reduce prices by 1,600%.

That's a fake number.

Okay.

And that's not a plan.

You're just doing fraud.

It's not a healthcare plan to post AI videos of alien technology from outer space called med beds that doesn't exist, obviously.

There's no alien technology, but it's a QAnon conspiracy as Donald Trump posts and say, this is going to cure all of your illnesses.

That's actually something that Donald Trump posted.

Just corporate news, like, ah, he just posts crazy things, so we're not going to talk about it.

But it's important that we talk about it in the context of, well, what's your health care plan?

Also, back in May, Donald Trump said, I've signed an executive order.

that will allow our prescription drug prices to cost as low as the lowest price for that same prescription drug price in the country where it's the lowest.

So if you factor in, you pick the drug and they're charging $1 for it in Canada, then Donald Trump says it will cost that amount of money in the United States, $1 also.

But that's not happening.

That's just fraud.

It's a lie.

That didn't happen.

Okay.

How do I know it didn't happen?

Do you think it happened?

Has it happened to you?

Has the most favored nation provision been implemented?

Of course it hasn't been.

And again, I think that's why we have to talk about the reality of the situation, which is that these Republicans have not put forward a plan.

And look, Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic leader, he posted this video that's now been viewed about 2 million times.

And it's been very simple.

Like literally, the video says, save health care.

And then it repeats, save health care.

Then it says hospitals will close.

And then it says premiums will skyrocket.

Okay.

Pretty basic message.

Not a fancy video.

It just says should be non-controversial, right?

Well, immediately, MAGA Republicans started responding, like Tim Burchett.

We did not create Obamacare.

Okay.

MAGA Republican Congressman Mike Lawler.

Obamacare was passed by Democrats.

The Obamacare tax credits were passed by Democrats during COVID and slated to expire at the end of this year.

Since Obamacare took effect, health care premiums have risen by over 60%.

Your failed policies created a health care crisis.

Well, one of the reasons we have these subsidies is to lower the prices.

Ever since Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, was introduced, Democrats have tried very hard to keep the prices down.

Republicans have blocked a lot of the efforts to build upon the work of Obamacare.

But if you have a better plan, then introduce what your plan is to the American people.

Talk about what it is, sell the plan, go through a legislative process the way Obamacare did.

Because before Obamacare, insurance companies could discriminate against people on the basis of pre-existing conditions.

20 plus million Americans were uninsured and they would just die.

They would die because they didn't have health care and premiums were through the roof and were very, very, very expensive.

So if you have a better plan, the plan that I like, I'll use my moral clarity on the show, is universal health care.

I believe the government should provide health care to all Americans for free.

Ben, where do you get the money from?

Tax rich people more.

That's my view.

You could disagree with it.

You could agree with it.

We're subsidizing billionaires right now to get more private jets and to get more yachts.

I think they should basically pay the amount of money for that one extra jet

for helping the greater good of the country as a gesture of patriotism for being so rich.

That's my view.

You could disagree with it.

You could say, okay, well, I don't want that.

I don't want, okay, well, what do you want?

You want Affordable Care Act, which you use these subsidies to bring the prices down.

That's an option.

That's an option.

I think the premiums are still too high, but that's why we brought in the subsidies.

So should we subsidize it more?

But then you have to come up with a plan.

And Brett and Jordy, I think what this shutdown has exposed, particularly today, is that what Republicans have, what this is all about, and MAG and Mike admitted it today, was repealing Obamacare.

So when they go and say, just open up the government now and we'll talk about healthcare, bruh.

Just trust us, bro.

We're going to talk about, but you got to open it up and then we're going to do super.

No, you're not.

No, you're not.

You're going to repeal health care.

That's what you're going to do.

How do I know that?

Because you said it.

Here's Magamike saying it today.

He's asked the right question.

This is the question that I've been saying.

Ask him.

Ask him, what do you, what's your plan?

Do you want to repeal Obamacare?

And listen to what he says, because this is actually sick.

He says it gave him and the Republicans PTSD.

It gave them post-traumatic stress disorder when McCain did the thumbs down and saved Obamacare.

He said that act of saving the Affordable Care Act caused him PTSD.

What a sick thing to say when Americans actually suffer from real PTSD and now don't have the health care to treat their conditions.

Here, play this clip.

President Obama, you have been very critical in recent days of Obamacare, and some of your members have called for repealing it.

Do you support repealing Obamacare?

And what's your health care plan?

We worked on repealing and replacing Obamacare back in 2017.

I still have PTSD from the experience.

You remember that John McCain famously did the thumbs down, and

effectively by a one-vote margin, the whole effort

was defeated.

It's a great frustration of mine, and has always been a President Trump's.

And we know that American health care needs dramatic reform.

Let's just state it simply.

Obamacare failed the American people.

It was promised to be a great success to make health care more affordable.

It's done exactly the opposite.

And it has been pointed out by everyone that since Obamacare was created in 2010, premiums, the cost of health care have risen exponentially.

It's skyrocketed to the point where it's no longer affordable for so many Americans.

And the access to care has been reduced.

And the quality of care in some regions of the country has been reduced.

We have to reverse all of of that.

And we have plans to do it.

The Republican Party is the party that has the plans to fix it.

Can we completely repeal and replace Obamacare?

Many of us are skeptical about that now because the roots are so deep.

It was really sinister the way, in my view, the way it was created.

I believe Obamacare was created.

Okay.

He rambles on and on and on and on.

And he doesn't give a plan.

Yeah, like how he says he has a plan.

Doesn't that give away the whole game right there?

I mean, doesn't that give away the whole game?

100%.

And everything he says is a lie, right?

And listen, I think virtually all Americans could agree that there's an issue with our healthcare system that needs

extreme solving.

The Republican plan, if they were to say it, would be to remove Obamacare, to make it so people with preexisting conditions could get denied coverage like they were before Obamacare, to end the expanded coverage that Obamacare gave, to take away the marketplace, to remove the subsidies, as we're seeing happen right now, to remove the block on lifetime limits.

Like there were so many things that Obamacare implemented that were game changers for Americans.

And I feel like still enough people in this country don't even give it enough credit.

But you know, a majority of this country does have a positive opinion on the Affordable Care Act.

Could it have been better?

Could it have been, could there have been a public option?

Yes, that was voted down at the last second.

There's so many things that could have been done there.

But Mike Johnson is spreading a false narrative.

He's acting like insurance premiums weren't rising before Obamacare.

In the 10 years before Obamacare became law, I think insurance premiums rose like 200%.

And so now they're saying that insurance premiums, insurance premiums have went up 60% since Obamacare, which sounds like a lot.

And it's still healthcare is way too expensive for Americans, but that's significantly less than it was.

It's growing at a slower pace.

In fact, if you put it next to things like housing, if you put it next to things like cars and

food prices, like the price of healthcare is actually increased at a much lower rate than all of those things, thanks to the Affordable Care Act.

Mike Johnson has no no plan here.

Donald Trump has no plan here.

And the words he uses are just so sleazy and slimy.

And it's so that he could act like, oh, I care.

I'm Mike Johnson.

We're just trying to do our best, but these pesky Democrats.

But it's really sinister what he's doing and just really, really disgusting, in my opinion.

I want to try to pull this up if I could find it, but

Ron Filipkowski at the Midas Touch Network did an incredible

translation of Mike Johnson's comments.

This is from our sub stack, midasplus.com.

You get great daily political news bulletins, the best in the universe at midasplus.com.

And so Ron Philip Kowski, our editor-in-chief, did this translation of Mike Johnson's comments that you just heard.

So he said, Johnson then said the quiet part out loud.

Can we completely repeal and replace Obamacare?

Many of us are skeptical about that now because the roots are so deep, it was really sinister the way it was.

created.

I believe Obamacare was created to implode upon itself, to collapse upon itself.

So Ron says when Mike Johnson says the roots are so deep, that means it's really freaking popular.

Most of the American people really like the Affordable Care Act.

They do not want to change or get rid of the Affordable Care Act.

Then Ron says when Mike Johnson says, quote, really sinister the way it was created.

Well, Mike Johnson is hinting at there, a Mike Johnson translation, is that a black man was the person who developed the law.

And Ron goes on to say, this is what he's been saying all year.

You know, they can't repeal the Affordable Care Act.

They know it's too popular, and their plan is to just kind of crush the funding of it, to try to destroy it, to choke off the funding, to end the subsidies.

That is why Democrats have made this their fight, because they understand what the Republicans are trying to do right now.

This is not only a temporary battle right now to extend these subsidies.

This is a battle for healthcare at large.

This is a battle for people to be able to not die in this country because Republicans have so drained the funding from such an essential service in this country.

That's why this is so contentious.

That's why you see the Democrats not backing down.

And that's why these Republicans, it's just so shameful.

what they are doing here and the lies they are spreading and their inability to just be honest with the American people and tell the damn truth about what's going on here and to get in a room with the party.

You need the Democrats' votes.

You're the majority party.

It's your job to actually run a government and to bring those people in and say, let's make a deal, let's compromise.

But they don't care about making a deal.

They just care about being subservient to donald trump their lord emperor who they just do whatever the hell he wants you know there was a wall street journal piece that was talking about you know donald trump in congress and he's like yeah it's amazing they just rubber stamp everything i do it's the best like that's not how it's supposed to be in this country this is supposed to be checks and balances but right now we have a congress we have courts we have all these things that are just saying here executive branch take all of our power.

We don't want it anyway.

It's all you, King Trump.

And that, to me, is deeply, deeply troubling.

Absolutely.

Look, let's remind everyone, the Republicans control every branch of government at this time.

And so when they try and continue to pin this on the Democrats, I mean, it's a really head-scratching moment.

It's like, look, to a certain extent, y'all got all the power here, Republicans.

You guys are the reason this shutdown is still happening.

And for me, I look at it through an additional lens, Brett.

Every day that passes and the government is shut down, for me, is just another reminder that Donald Trump and the Republican Party would rather protect pedos than figure out a sustainable health care plan.

Because once the government reopens, you know, what you're also going to get is a vote to release the Epstein files.

And so

this is all such a head-scratching moment for me as Johnson continues to deflect at the expense of the American people.

And it's incredibly frustrating when he gives this sort of, oh, shucks behavior.

And he's just trying to be this, you know, really smooth talking guy.

And he, you know, it's further, there couldn't be anything further from the truth with Johnson.

I mean, he just comes off incredibly phony, super slimy and that's that's every time he takes the stand there bread and just the disgraceful things they're doing which are clear violations of the law clear violations of the hatch act like when they change all these government websites to say this is the fault of the democrats the democrats have shut down the government they don't want you to get your care when they talk about uh the what the videos they're playing at the airports like did you see that christy noome video if you showed me that and said that this is a video that's plays in North Korea to silence their opposition, I'd be like, this is horrifying.

We need to do do something about that.

But Christine Home is there playing these videos from the Department of Homeland Security where she goes around and she goes, while people are waiting in TSA line, she goes around and she goes, sorry that things are slower right now, but this is the fault of those evil Democrats who are doing this to you.

Like this is really, really, really horrifying things.

But that's why it's so important that people stand up to this tyranny and that they refuse to be silenced.

And that's why I'm so excited that the No Kings protests are coming up this Saturday.

They are expected to be even bigger than the last ones.

Millions and millions and millions of people taking to the streets to say, well, no kings.

And you see, you see like this anti-body type reaction from this fascist government in which we are living right now, trying to silence these no kings protesters, trying to say that these protesters, they're all Antifa.

These protesters, they all hate America, using just horrific language of people who are just trying to use their free expression to speak out against a government that is overstepping.

And so you've had people now from all across the administration who have been going on TV.

Like you can name a person.

I'll show you them on TV saying things about these no-king protests in the most heinous terms.

So first, let me show you this clip of Scott Besson, the Treasury Secretary.

He goes on TV.

I don't even totally fully know what he means by this, but he's like, no kings means no paychecks.

He's somehow equating the no-kings protests to the government shutdown, despite the fact that the no kings protests were organized far before the government shut down.

I don't even know, but watch Scott Bessie.

If in fact they are waiting for this no kings protest, you know, no kings means no paychecks, no paychecks and no government.

And Maria, I think the dirty secret here for why this has dragged on for so long is the Democratic friends in the mainstream media have been downplaying this shutdown.

And this is getting serious.

It's starting to affect the real economy.

It's starting to affect people's lives.

Okay, so I think there was a little bit something there at the end, too, that's worth noting, that he wants to blame the bad economy under Trump.

Remember, they still haven't released the employment numbers.

and they're blaming the shutdown for it, but they want to blame the bad economy under Trump over the government shutdown and try to pin it on Democrats.

That's part of the seeds that Besant is planting over there.

But like I said, you name a cabinet secretary.

Let's go to the secret.

Like, why is the Secretary of Transportation even speaking about no Kings protests?

Could you speak about how you're going to speed up things at the airports and keep planes from falling out of the sky?

But here is Sean Duffy of Real World Road Rules Challenge fame equating these protests to saying that it's their Antifa, they're paid protesters.

Watch this.

But again, the No Kings protest, Maria, really frustrating.

I mean, this is part of Antifa, paid protesters.

It begs the question, who's funding it.

But yeah, Democrats want to wait for a big rally of a no-kings protest.

When the bottom line is,

who's running the show in the Senate?

Chuck Schumer's not running the show.

John Thune.

The Republicans run the Senate.

What is the question?

Who's running the show in the Senate?

You all control the Senate.

Majority Leader Thune is the leader of the Senate.

You guys control the Senate.

And that language that he is saying right there, to me, brothers and Midas Mighty, is just incredibly troubling, especially when you put it in context of things that have happened over the past few weeks, like Donald Trump saying Antifa is a terrorist terrorist organization, saying we could use lethal force against Antifa, just like we use lethal force against terrorists around the world.

Remember, Donald Trump is doing these extrajudicial killings of

like just targeting fishing boats and stuff in the Caribbean.

He's essentially saying that he has the right to kill anybody who participates in these protests.

Like, if you draw a direct line between what he's saying, he held that very frightening, bizarre event with like MAGA propagandist influencers last week, which was the Antifa Roundtable.

And his whole thing is

it's not about, you know, Antifa.

It's not about, you know, this is a terrorist group.

The real mission behind what Donald Trump is doing here is clearly he wants to silence all dissent and anybody who also helps fund any of the groups, anyone who helps organize any of these events in which people speak out against him.

He's trying to get to basically the funding of all, any and all opposition, big money funders who fund the Democratic Party, big organizer groups who help put together rallies like the No Kings rallies.

Donald Trump and his government are trying to use the weight of the federal government to crush all dissent, to try to eradicate the opposition party.

And so their language, when you hear them say things like that, is very intentional.

I mean, I could show you,

I'll show you Tom Emmer quickly, okay?

Tom Emmer saying that this is like a terrorist event.

Watch this.

This is about one thing and one thing only, to score political points with the terrorist wing of their party, which is set to hold, as Leader Scalise just commented on, a Hate America rally in D.C.

next week.

That's the majority whip of the House of Representatives saying things that are so utterly irresponsible.

And I know all of you have been to these events too.

By the way, congrats on your paychecks going to all these events.

If you need to get your back pay, hit us up.

We'll tell you.

No, I'm just kidding.

But all of you have been to these events.

They're all been incredibly peaceful.

I proudly attended the No Kings event last time when I went to the one near me here.

It was a great vibe.

It was a patriotic vibe.

People with American flags, people who wanted to uphold the Constitution of the United States, people who loved this country, people who were there saying no kings, that we don't do tyrants in the country.

Hilarious signs, a great vibe of community there, people helping one another.

And for Donald Trump and his regime to turn around and call you all who are watching, this who participated in these things, to say, y'all are paid.

You are terrorists.

You are pro-Hamas.

You are evil.

You need to be eradicated.

You are anti-American.

That to me, you know, going back full circle to this entire episode, it's why enough of the praising of this guy at Legacy Media.

Let's focus on what he's doing and the threat that he poses, not just to the entire world, but also to us here at home, the American people.

Great points, Fred.

The anti-American stuff really upsets me, too, because there actually isn't anything more American, more patriotic than getting out there and peacefully protesting.

So I'm excited to see y'all out there this weekend.

Please tag us in signs, tag us in your protests, tag us wherever.

You name the social media.

We're going to do our best to repost and uplift all of y'all.

So seriously, let's get out there and let's peacefully do this thing, Ben.

They're kind of telling themselves, too, and they're like.

Did you say you're anti-fascist?

What did you say about me?

I mean, you just call yourself a fascist?

Because

I was against fascism.

You seem to take that personally for some reason.

Ken Klippenstein did a good report on this.

I'm interviewing him about NSPM 7, National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, which is different than an executive order.

It actually directed our national security apparatus to open up an office in a suburban area in Virginia, a few miles away from the CIA headquarters, where every day they are compiling lists of people who they view as anti-American, that have views against gender, that differ from the Trump administration, anti-capitalist, it says, and views that go against morality.

And if you get put on a list, you get treated as though you, you know, this is pro-Antifa,

you get treated as though you were a terrorist.

The national security apparatus would monitor, surveil, and engage in all this behavior against people they suspected of being terrorist cells.

That's now been moved to create this watch list of individuals within the United States.

And so using the rhetoric that you hear from MAGA, that protesting and peacefully makes you Antifa, to your point, Brett, it's clear what they are trying to do and how they use this name Antifa as really a pretext to just try to clamp down on dissent.

I think one of the things that we'll leave you all with as well, though, is that even throughout all of this, I think the American people have

the people have maintained their power.

The people continue to resist.

The people continue to oppose.

I mean, Donald Trump is a deeply unpopular person, despite what corporate news tries to do.

And boy, do they try to treat this person like I've never seen anything near it.

It is odd.

It is gross.

But the American people are saying, look, at the end of the day, I'm living paycheck to paycheck.

My healthcare is getting ripped away.

Grocery prices are not lower.

Prices in general are going up.

You did not destroy inflation.

Inflation is higher than ever right now.

I'm not able to afford my rent, or if you're lucky enough to have a home, I'm not able to afford my mortgage.

I'm not able to get an education.

I am

in debt, and my credit card is now delinquent.

Highest credit card delinquencies in recent history.

Highest student loan delinquent.

6 million student loans are delinquent right now, meaning people are defaulting, meaning people's credit is being absolutely being destroyed.

Worst housing market since 1995.

Worst market for jobs since the Great Recession.

You know, this is the real data that's out there.

And meanwhile, Trump's Bureau of Labor statistics is not publishing the economic data.

Just they're not publishing inflation data.

They're not publishing jobs data.

And the data we get from private sources shows that things are very, very bad.

And our stock market is being propped up by AI companies doing deals with each other over and over and over again with the same types of companies that account for 80% of the gains on the market are a handful of AI companies right now.

And so the rest of the market, if it wasn't for these companies, would be struggling significantly right now.

And so Main Street regular people are saying, what the hell is going on here?

You've given tax cuts to billionaires, but you can't extend my health care while you are bragging about bringing in $18 trillion.

Trump's approval has never been lower.

I mean, I'm talking first term as well.

American people hate this, and rightfully so.

And American people will get out there and peacefully protest at No Kings.

I have no doubt about it.

And we'll be covering everything that's happening at No Kings, as is our duty and as has been our priority.

Thanks, everybody, for watching this episode of the Might as Touch podcast.

We told you it would be very comprehensive.

Subscribe now to the YouTube channel.

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Subscribe to the audio podcast and leave a five-star review as well.

That helps us in a big way.

Also, if you can become a member of our YouTube channel, and if you become a member by clicking the join button, you can gift memberships to other peoples i want to thank to people i want to thank all of our sponsors thanks for supporting the show discount codes are in the description below grateful to our sponsors and most importantly we're grateful for all of you the mightus mighty stay in this fight stay strong we're in this together and as that guardian article about us says we'll always keep on fighting for you jordy take it away shout out to the mighty

standing strong

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