MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 1/23/26

23:18Ben Meiselas:We're going to help the people in California. We want to have no crime.

23:22Brett Meiselas:I know Gavin was here. I used to get along so great with Gavin when I was president. Gavin's a good guy. And we're going to if he needed it, I would do it in a heartbeat. I'd love to see. We did help them a lot in Los Angeles, a lot with the early early

23:37Ben Meiselas:in my term when they had some problems. But we would love to do it. I will say this if I were Democrat governor or whatever, I would call up Trump. I'd say, come on in, make us look good because we're cutting crime down to nothing. So California governor Gavin Newsom, those on audio looks at Trump as Trump's saying that, like, this is like a crazy person. This person's insane. Donald Trump goes, Gavin is a good guy. But see, that's the thing. Like, and I have zero respect for Donald Trump in general, about every aspect of his behavior. But like if you're going to commit to the shtick, like when the guy's right in front of you, if you're Mr.

24:19Ben Meiselas:Tough Guy, then don't you go nuscom. Right? Well, don't you – he's right there. You're not going to say it to his face. You're just going to go back and then go, what should I type?

24:30Brett Meiselas:He is the definition, Donald Trump is the definition, Ben, of a keyboard warrior. Too scared to say in front of your face. Let me say this about this. Let me say this about this Trump regime quickly. and sorry if I cut you off, Trudy, if you want to say anything else, let me know. But I just want to say a government should lead with do no harm. And it should frankly be better than that. It should be help the people and ensure that they're safe and secure and all of those things. And Donald Trump in that, whatever the hell you call, whatever the freak that was, Donald Trump, you know, was talking about how he went into Los Angeles, how he helped California so much, yada, yada, yada.

25:08Me and Ben are here in Los Angeles. I'm sure we have a lot of listeners. I know we have a lot of listeners in Los Angeles. There was no riots, chaos, fires. All the things that Donald Trump did when he came here were pointless and only stoked more tension and more violence. And we've seen Donald Trump do this everywhere he goes. This entire regime does this everywhere they go. They do this in Minneapolis. They do this in Greenland. They do this everywhere. This is their move. They go in there. They cause chaos. They cause the problem. They are the problem. To me, it should just be a, there's a very simple litmus test as to whether the government should be doing what it's doing.

25:47And that's if the government right now, if these ICE agents who are terrorizing people in Minneapolis, if these, all these federal agents throughout the country right now, if If they went home, if they left, if they got the hell out and stopped terrorizing people, and that would make everything calm, and everything would be peaceful, and there'd be no tensions, and there'd be no violence, and there'd be no chaos, that means that they are the cause of that chaos. That means they are the cause of the violence. That means that they are the problem. So get the hell out. It's very clear. When Donald Trump came to Los Angeles, they were the problem.

26:25Those officers were the problem. Those people who were in Los Angeles were the problem. Donald Trump interfering with the fire response, he made things worse. And you never want to make things worse. But Donald Trump's whole thing is stoke the flames, make sure that things are as chaotic as possible so that he could create a pretext to do whatever the hell he wants. It's just crazy. It's an abusive government. It's the actions of an abuser. And it's no surprise that this government is led by an abuser and a party of abusers and people who protect sexual predators because this is their MO. This is what they do.

27:00This is what they're good at. It's the only thing they're good at.

27:04Ben Meiselas:And as part of that predator conduct, it's relentless, right? The way Donald Trump is with Greenland, it's like a sociopath who you need a restraining order against, right? I want it. I need it. I want it. I need it. It's a piece of ice. I need it. I want it. I love it. I need it. I hate it. I hate it. I need it. I need it. I need to need it. It's like, so the only way you can stand up to that is forcefully. Like, there's no other way to do it. Like you have to assert yourself, even if it's selfishly, you, you can't appease that because it's just nonstop. Now I need it. I need it. I need it. I need it.

27:37Ben Meiselas:You got to be like, and you got to, you got to push back strong. And I hope the world is realizing that right now. That was one of the message that Newsom was delivering there is you got to push back strong. He's saying this as an American, you got to push back and hit back strong against the regime. So when we come back, I want to talk more about Donald Trump's fake deal and what he said this fake deal is about. I want to talk about how state regime media tried to prop up that fake deal and say, this is amazing. This is promising. So what's promising a fake deal? What are you talking about? And then I want to cue in on what's going on with the ICE and Border patrol invasions, their attempts to prosecute Lemon and go after protesters, gas protesters, terrorizing communities, using five-year-old children as bait.

28:25Ben Meiselas:Talk about that and, of course, the cover-up of the Epstein files. A lot to discuss. Let's take our first quick break of the show. A reminder to everybody, make sure you hit subscribe on our YouTube channel. You may think you're subscribed, but you may not actually be subscribed. So double check, hit subscribe, subscribe to the Midas Touch audio podcast. If you just watch on YouTube, audio listeners, subscribe on YouTube. Go check out store.midastouch.com to get that Midas Touch gear. And you can wear that gear now, store.midastouch.com. And check out our substack midasplus.com. Let's take our first quick break of the show.

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32:21Brett Meiselas:Use the codes. if there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. Benji, before I toss back to you, I was visiting mom the other week. I had a great time. And when I was there, I bumped into some folks that I went to high school with. And it was at the pizza shop. And let's just say they sent me some pretty nasty texts over the course of these couple of years. And what jogged my memory of this was when we were talking about Trump being a keyboard warrior. And these kids have really like said some vile stuff to me and when i walked into the coffee shop clocked them immediately they saw me you know what they did immediately put their heads down and sunk to the side a lot of keyboard warriors in this life folks a lot of keyboard warriors stand up for your value stand up for your beliefs because integrity you know it's everything these days and those kids i wish i could say their names right now but i won't i won't i won't take the high road benji where to next.

33:15Ben Meiselas:Okay, let's just show you when Donald Trump was asked some questions by Caitlin Collins and others about, well, what was this deal that you claim you entered into with NATO about Greenland and Denmark, even though NATO doesn't have the power to even do that. So are you going to acquire Greenland? Is that part of this? Look at Donald Trump's answer here. Play this clip. It's a deal that everybody's very happy with.

33:38Brett Meiselas:Does it still include the United States having ownership of Greenland like you've said you wanted?

33:47It's a long term deal.

33:50Ben Meiselas:It's the ultimate long term deal. And I think it puts everybody in a really good position, especially as it pertains to security. There's no deal. He made this up, which is hard for some people to grasp. None of this is none of it is true. So did Donald Trump even talk to NATO at all about about Greenland and acquiring? No. Remember how Geordi just said when he saw those old friends who would say things to him, now they're embarrassed, they put their head down? That's basically what Trump did. Trump did his fake board of peace thing, which is actually the axis of evil, which by the way, Donald Trump was saying tonight, that he gets to lead it for the rest of Trump's life, he says.

34:30Ben Meiselas:So even when Trump's out of office, Trump says that he will be the leader of this board that will conduct foreign policy, which again is unlawful and is absolutely ridiculous. But when Donald Trump was there with the secretary general of NATO, it wasn't even a topic that was brought up. Trump leaves it and then makes up that he has a deal to take over parts of Greenland. This is beyond sociopathic. None of it is true. So Donald Trump is asked by Caitlin Collins. The next follow-up is, how long, how long is this deal? And Trump's like, the infinite deal. It's the infinite deal. Here, play this clip.

35:04Brett Meiselas:How long would the deal be, Mr. President?

35:08Ben Meiselas:Infinite. There is no time limit. It's forever. And how would you ratify the deal? It's signed forever. But you haven't signed anything yet, right? It's a deal that's forever. The guy's just a clown. Like, just enough normalized. You can't normalize. What are we talking about? Infinite. Never ends. How are you going to ratify it? Doesn't matter. What are we even, what are we watching there? Like, do we realize that it's not even, to call that crazy or to call that demented doesn't do it justice. It is literally the same as seeing, you know, I don't know, you know, how Donald Trump talks about they let out the people in the mental institutions or whatever.

35:56Ben Meiselas:That's you, Donald. I don't want to blame it on serious issues, but he's out of it. What are you talking about for life forever? And Greenland and Denmark and NATO don't know anything about this at all. And the American guy, the commander who leads NATO doesn't know anything about this either. It's just completely made up. But state regime media known as Fox, Will Kane, he goes, Trump described this as an infinite deal. Here to join us, the former ambassador. I think he brings like a former ambassador to Denmark. So what do we make about this? And then she's like, I'll play the clip for you. But she's just like, well, this may be like the United States' relationship with Puerto Rico.

36:44Ben Meiselas:But we don't really know for sure. But this is very promising. Like, this is very promising. What are you talking about? What is promising about this? you have a delusional, demented psychopath in the Oval Office making up fake deals that nobody knows what he's talking about but himself. What is promising? How do you even do this? Truthfully, how does this even exist? How am I even talking about this? Why am I talking about this? Sometimes I think about that, right? And I'm like, what is this? Here, just watch for yourself. Here, play this clip. So joining me now is former US ambassador to Denmark and Greenland, Carla Sands.

37:23Thanks for being with us here today. I don't know if you have more information than what we've been able to gather so far on the framework of this potential deal. What is your suspicion? President Trump described it as an infinite deal, a big win for all parties, which is an interesting framing considering earlier today he said who in the hell in their right mind would want to lease or license presence on Greenland?

37:50Brett Meiselas:Yeah, I don't know what he's ended up with. I know that he said unequivocally that we had to own it. And I had thought it would be a COFA, more like a free association, but that's not what that is. So does it look more like our relationship with Puerto Rico? I really, I'm looking forward to learning as much as you are about this new deal that the framework is in place, but it's really encouraging.

38:14Ben Meiselas:It's really encouraging, she says at the end, but it's really encouraging. This may be like the US and Puerto Rico. Where are you getting that from? Where are you getting that from? You're just making nothing that she's saying or that Will Cainton, it's not even tethered to reality. I want to give a hat tip. I'm not going to play the clip here though to politics girl, Lee McGowan, who's on the Midas Dutch Network. that, you know, she's channeling all of us. Remember when Scott Jennings was like, why do we even care about the Epstein files? So just a little bit of noncompliance. And then she's like, a little bit of noncompliance.

38:51Ben Meiselas:Just why the hell are you talking like that? It's just a little bit of sex trafficking. Who do we care? It's like, what are you talking about? You're covering up child sex trafficking and you're like, don't get all worked up about this. Don't get all worked up about this. It's just enough of this crap. The exact quote by Scott Jennings is even worse. Let's not get our knickers in a twist, is what Scott Jennings, about the Epstein files and the cover-up of a child sex trafficking ring. But I think when we look at all this stuff, you look at Fox, that's a multi-billion dollar operation that's designed in order to push state regime talking points.

39:29Social media apps like X, That's a multi-billion dollar operation and algorithm in order to push particular talking points to try to brainwash the American people. And I believe that these platforms have made our country very sick because in a healthy country, in a healthy nation, we would run these people the hell out of this country. We would not accept this BS. I know our viewers don't accept this BS, but in a normal country, it would be like 96 % of the country not accepting this BS. not just like 75 % of the country or 70 % of the country wanting to run these people out. But it would be like 95, 96%.

40:04These people are lunatics. And it really is a battle of good versus evil. And we'll get to like the Jack Smith of it all later. But you really just see the evilness on display and their desire to constantly rewrite history and to try to shift the narrative and to try to just outright lie to people in order to create their own version of reality. They took that concept from Trump's first term with Kellyanne Conway when she called it alternative facts, and they made that their MO. They made that their whole shtick. We're just, okay, reality sucks for us. We're not very good at governing. We're not very good at anything.

40:40We cause terror. Everybody would actually hate us in any sort of normal world. So we got to create our own reality. We got to pump all this money into these networks, these social media apps. We need to brainwash the people the way dictatorships have brainwashed their people for decades, but use these new tools like artificial intelligence and algorithms, social media, use all of these tools not to inform people, but use them as weapons and use them as weapons and point them at the American people. And just the amount of people you see on these social media apps, many of whom are probably bots and stuff, by the way, you know, I'm sure, but a lot of real people behind these accounts as well that defend this crap on a daily basis.

41:18Oh, it's funny that they did AI of the, of the lady. It's funny that they, no, it's not, it's not funny. And by the way, if you actually cared about justice, then you wouldn't want the White House to do that. If you actually wanted this person to be arrested, you wouldn't give prejudicial information to the public that could affect your case and blow up your entire case and hand the defense an instant out for your BS case to begin with. You wouldn't want that. So I know you don't care about the facts. I know you don't care about truth or justice or democracy or the United States of America. You just want to be in your little cult and you just want to spread your little cult BS and that's it.

41:54You don't care about the country. You don't care about anybody except yourself. And it's honestly a shame. And you brought shame to this country, to the United States, and you have shamed the United States in front of the world. And I don't understand how these people live with themselves. They're like sick, honestly, sickos, sickos.

42:09Brett Meiselas:They're absolutely sick, Brett. And it's just like the entire MAGA ilk too. You're talking about the folks who, you know, about that photo who are like, oh, that's hilarious. Isn't comedy back? You lib, you should be laughing at that. It's like, you're all the same people that wear the don't tread on me shirts that are now cheering on government going into cities and shooting women that's what you're cheering the don't tread on me folks love government they love big government actually because that's what y 'all are saying that's what you want is isn't it you know the reality brett that fox news and and all of these like like really radical like like these right-leaning entities have created this own reality that they could pay for because they are so well-funded with the billions and honestly trillions of dollar ecosystem that could just rot the brains of americans there is a bit of me that genuinely feels bad for a lot of the country of how they could get deceived when it's a multi-billion dollar multi-trillion dollar operation that is set on your phone on your laptop you can't avoid it you cannot escape it like we were talking about with the internet earlier brett no matter where you go it's just so prevalent and it was supposed to be i think used for good at least that was the common thought but it's now being used in so many manipulative ways that i could understand like how someone that maybe doesn't have great family ties that maybe isn't super well educated or maybe is and just gets it just so um just in front of their face so frequently and so heavily gets brainwashed and manipulated by this stuff but at the end of the day right we're all playing by the same set of rules and so we see this stuff too You have to be able to take the step back as a person, I'm saying, and be like, this isn't okay.

43:52Brett Meiselas:This is not okay. And snap yourself out of it at the same time. What the Trump regime is doing right now, it is so morally bankrupt. That's the word that just keeps coming back to my mind. Morally bankrupt. This entire administration, morally frigging bankrupt.

44:08Ben Meiselas:When Brett and Jordy are talking about the manipulated photos, for those just kind of joining now, They're talking about the photo that was posted of Nekima Levi Armstrong, and she was the leader of the protest at the St. Paul Church, where protesters went in to protest someone who worked at the church who allegedly was working for ICE or was an informant for ICE at that church. And so Kristi Noem posts a photo of Nakema Armstrong and noticed that the officer's face is blurred, but her face isn't blurred. And she's not crying. I mean, she's just been arrested and, you know, and she's, you know, standing up for her, she's, you know, standing up on her rights.

44:49By the way, she's a civil rights attorney. I hear she is as tough as nails, as tough as it gets. And so that was also one of the things I think that set a lot of people off this morning when they showed the photo saying she would never be crying in this situation.

45:01Ben Meiselas:And then, you know, we reported first on the Midas Touch that I'm like, because at the moment I saw this, I was like, yeah, they AI that. And we did a report on it right away. Then the White House did an AI image of her crying hysterically, totally fabricated image. And by the way, she's going to go into court with her lawyer now. And she's going to say, this is a vindictive prosecution. Look at what they did. And there's going to be a finding of vindictiveness. And then the Trump regime is going to whine and say, the judges are against us. They're weaponized in Minneapolis. No, you posted that.

45:30Ben Meiselas:You're supposed to behave like adults. You're supposed to follow the DOJ guidelines and rules and the constitutional rights that people have. And when you posted that, first off, to me, this whole prosecution is bogus to begin with, in my legal opinion, but setting aside that. Then you do this, and then, of course, Nakima's going to do a vindictive prosecution, and it's going to be granted. And then they go, oh my God, how did that happen? Same thing by all these right wing people. They want Don Lemon to be prosecuted. Prosecute Don Lemon. Prosecute Don Lemon. And then you have one of the top people in the DOJ repost a poly market, a betting market account that says DOJ arrests two suspects in connection with the storming of a Minnesota church.

46:17Ben Meiselas:Don Lemon potentially implicated for KKK Act violations. 36 % chance he's criminally charged. Then like the top three person at the DOJ goes, three now arrested. And as Adam Klassfeld, who does a lot of work with our network, writes, the head of Trump's DOJ civil rights division boosts prediction markets, placing 36 percent odds that she'll be able to prosecute Don Lemon for his journalism after federal magistrate judge found no probable cause of a crime. The DOJ went to a magistrate judge to try to get Lemon arrested today. They're not trying to go through an indictment process where they have to go before a grand jury.

46:56Ben Meiselas:So they try to get a magistrate to just sign off on it. And this magistrate said, I'm not going to sign off on it. So the DOJ starts doxing the magistrate's wife and say, oh, well, the magistrate's wife works at the attorney general's office, which by the way, would be perfectly, how do you think lawyers meet each other. They often meet each other in law school. I mean, you know, how do they, husband and wives, they often find each other in law school. It's not shocking that a judge would be married to somebody else who has a job in government. But so they dox the wife, and then they boost a prediction market and manipulate markets potentially about Don Lemon.

47:34Ben Meiselas:And so if Don Lemon gets arrested, he's going to say vindictive prosecution as well. And by the way, if you actually look at the FACE Act that they're charging these people with, about engaging in threatening physical threats and physical obstructive conduct or other types of violent threats. Don Lemon didn't do that. The only person who touched someone was the guy who worked at the church who touched Lemon. It's on videotape. And Lemon said, don't touch me. I don't want to be touched by you. I just want to know what your view. Lemon asked him what your view is about people protesting here. Do you think they have a right to do it?

48:12Ben Meiselas:And the guy who worked that the church was like, this is a house of God. We just want to pray, but this is a house for all people of God. And Lemon was like, so wouldn't that mean like the immigrant population as well? Shouldn't we be protecting that population? And that's why I want to talk about J.D. Vance going to Minnesota and again, doing more of the regime gaslighting here. But I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about it in the context of what needs to be mentioned, which is ICE using a five-year-old, Liam Conejo Ramos as bait for his father. So ICE agents kidnapped this five-year-old. He's wearing like a blue Pokemon hat or a blue whatever hat, teddy bear hat.

48:56Ben Meiselas:They kidnapped the five-year-old. They're holding onto the five-year-old by the five-year-old's backpack. A grown ICE agent man is holding onto a five-year-old that he's just abducted off the streets as the five-year-old is walking back from preschool. They take the five-year-old, they show up at the door, come out for your five-year-old. I've kidnapped your son. I've kidnapped your five-year-old. Then ICE kidnaps the father and the five-year-old and sends them away to a concentration camp in Texas. That's what's taking place right now on the streets of Minnesota and across this country. Not to mention the fact that you have the head of Border Patrol, Dan Bovino, or Greg Bovino, rather, who's out there himself gassing people, this kind of green, noxious carcinogenic gas they're throwing at the people there.

49:47Ben Meiselas:And by the way, if you've done studies on police departments and their use of force, big police departments like Chicago PD and others, they've never used this gaseous, toxic carcinogenic substance ever as a form of force to be used on people. ICE just sprays it on people. And I think we're going to learn one day that it's causing cancer and it's causing all of these things. And I think the government's going to pay massive settlements for it, which is the least that they can do for all of this conduct that they're engaging in. And that's happening in plain view. How many thousands of people are going to die that have inhaled this stuff that we learn later on have the things that are equivalent of mesothelioma and things like that?

50:27Ben Meiselas:Like that's what's taking place on our streets right now. So that brings me to J.D. Vance. So J.D. Vance goes into Minnesota and he tries to be like the rational, calm voice here. I want to talk about J.D. Vance and I want to talk about much more. But first, I want to take our last quick break of the show. Our producer is saying you got to go to a commercial break. So let's take that last break of the show. A reminder, make sure you subscribe to the Midas Touch YouTube channel. You may think you're subscribed, but you may not actually be subscribed. So hit subscribe now if you can. Also, if you watch on YouTube, subscribe to our audio podcast.

51:00Ben Meiselas:So wherever you download audio podcasts, just search Midas Touch. Even if you don't plan on listening it on audio, you never know. But that helps us with the algorithm. So subscribe there as well. Also, we're going to be launching the Aaron Parnas podcast on the Midas Touch Network audio podcast. So that's a great addition. So stay tuned for news about that. hint hint there may be a soft uh launch of it that's taking place already and you may be able to find it but you may check that check that out um and go to store.midustouch.com for Midas gear and check out our sub stack at midasplus.com last break of the show I want to talk about what J.D.

51:41Ben Meiselas:Vann said I want to talk about Donald Trump's disastrous polling Donald Trump threatening to sue the New York Times and Jack Smith take our last quick break of the show

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56:39Brett Meiselas:See website for details, restrictions, and important safety information. Actual price will depend on product and subscription plan. Shout out to our sponsors, man. Links in description about the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. Benji, where to next, big bro?

56:58Ben Meiselas:Where to? Let's go to Minnesota. J.D. Vance is there. And I guess J.D. Vance just wants to lie and gaslight the hell out of everybody. And this is just ultimate abuser behavior, right? Like after all of the terror that they've caused the community, J.D. Vance shows up and he tries to like act like, what are we really doing? Let's all just be a little bit reasonable, okay? I've never said that officers should get absolute immunity. Anybody who says such a thing is deranged. No one actually would say that officers like these ICE officers get absolute or these ICE Gestapo get absolute immunity. Okay.

57:37Ben Meiselas:What I was just saying is that there need, no, what I wanted was due process. That's all. But no one ever talked about absolute immunity. So watch what he says first here. And then I'll show you the clip where he said, well, like yesterday, every day he's been saying absolute immunity. But first, let me play the clip from earlier today. Let's play it.

57:54Brett Meiselas:After the Rene Good shooting, sir, the administration seemed to suggest that ICE officers enjoyed near complete immunity. But today you told the Washington Examiner that when appropriate, the administration might take disciplinary actions against ICE agents. So is that a change of opinion? And if so, why? No, I didn't say, and I don't think any other official within the Trump administration said that officers who engaged in wrongdoing would enjoy immunity. That's absurd. What I did say is that when federal law enforcement officers violate the law, that is typically something that federal officials would look into.

58:36Brett Meiselas:We don't want these guys to have kangaroo courts. We want them to actually have real due process, real investigation, because, again, sometimes they're accused of wrongdoing, and it turns out when you learn the context, they didn't actually do anything wrong.

58:47Ben Meiselas:Oh, okay. Well, so when you said that they get absolute immunity the other day, that didn't happen. Okay. Got it, JD. Got it. Here, play this clip.

58:57Brett Meiselas:The precedent here is very simple. You have a federal law enforcement official engaging in federal law enforcement action. That's a federal issue. That guy is protected by absolute immunity. He was doing his job. The idea that Tim Walz and a bunch of radicals in Minneapolis are going to go after and make this guy's life miserable because he was doing the job that he was asked to do is preposterous.

59:17Ben Meiselas:Where would anybody get this idea that he said absolute in me? Where would one have ever got that idea from? But then J.D. Vance says, look. All we're trying to do here, why is ICE and Border Patrol here? We're trying to get the pedos off the street. That's it. We just need some help. There are some sex offenders here. We all don't like sex offenders, right? So that's all we've been trying to accomplish. So we have to go after them, the pedos, and we're being blocked. So just help us find the pedos and we'll be cool. So why is there resistance to that? Here, play this clip. ... types of cooperation that we need.

59:58Look, I don't need Tim Walz or Jacob Frey or anybody

1:00:00Brett Meiselas:else to come out and say that they agree with J.D. Vance or Donald Trump on immigration. I just don't need that. What I do need them to do is empower their local officials to help our local or help our federal officials out in a way where this can be a little bit less chaotic and it can be a little bit more targeted. Like if we're trying to find a sex offender, tell us where the guy lives.

1:00:20Ben Meiselas:That's just authoritarianism 101, right? They're launching special operations to find the sex offenders. And why are you stopping us from doing that? No one would stop you from finding sex offenders. You know how that's normally done? Cooperation between the FBI and local law enforcement that form these strike units together and cooperate jointly in these task force to go after trafficking, drugs, cartels. If they wanted to increase resources to federal state task forces for the purposes of doing that, all the state governors are okay with that. That has happened before, and it should happen again.

1:01:02Ben Meiselas:But notice that they go there. Why? Because they're sociopaths. And as sociopaths, they frame the arguments in ways that sociopaths – we're just going after the pedos. I just want to call this out also because you brought this up before, and this is usually their go-to also, right? Oh, so you don't want us to investigate sex trafficking. Oh, that's what you're doing. Oh, wow. Wow. I can't believe you wouldn't want us to get the pedos off the street. Dude, check 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, first of all. I think you'll find plenty right there to start. But moving beyond that point, everyone's demanding you release the Epstein files.

1:01:39You're doing everything you can to cover it up. You've released less than 1 % of the Epstein files. At every opportunity where you could release more, you've refused to. Everything has been shrouded in secrecy and deceit. You fought in the courts saying that no courts have the right to make you release the files. I mean, it's very clear what you guys are covering up there. and everything, quite literally, the way J.D. Vance argues, both on the internet and in moments like that, is he creates a straw man that no one is arguing against. And then he forcefully argues against this point that nobody's talking about.

1:02:11There's nobody saying to him, no, we don't want you to go after the sex offender, save the sex offenders. But he tries to recenter the conversation on maybe don't shoot mothers in the face. Maybe you shouldn't be able to do that with impunity. How about that? And he tries to recenter the conversation to say, these people don't want us to go after sex offenders. How dare you? No one's talking about that. That's how he reframes the arguments all the time. It's his only rhetorical move when it comes to arguments with J.D. Vance is doing that. And then I think we should mention just quickly while we're on the topic of ICE, this leaked memo that is out there right now from a whistleblower, which is really horrifying.

1:02:53And this is honestly perhaps one of the most important leaks that we've seen come from a Trump administration. And I say a Trump administration because I'm including the first one as well. This leaked document is a bombshell. And I'll just explain kind of briefly what it is. There was an ICE whistleblower, and they revealed the existence of this internal memo that authorizes ICE officers to break into people's homes without a judicial warrant. Now, the government's own training documents themselves at the Department of Homeland Security say that this is unconstitutional. And so, and it's a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment.

1:03:31I mean, we have a Fourth Amendment specifically for instances like this. But here's what ICE is doing. ICE is telling their officers, not in writing, because they don't want this stuff to spread and get out there. They have limited memos. So by word of mouth, they are telling people that if Donald Trump and his regime want someone removed from this country, that ICE now has the full authority to break down the door and to remove them and send them off to God knows where. And all they need is an administrative warrant. An administrative warrant, that comes from like ICE courts. It's basically just someone with an ICE who's signing off on it.

1:04:10It's not like an actual court where you actually have to get a real warrant signed off. This is how they're getting around the actual process. And they've actually purged a lot of the legitimate people in these positions. And they're putting in these lackeys. I think they're even like, I've seen them hire people like off Twitter for this position. They're like, serve your country. They have that, you know, authoritarian propaganda that they use. and they're putting people in these positions to allow this sort of stuff. They have these basically blank, you know, fake warrants that they create, and then they give themselves the permission to break down people's doors and whisk them out of their house.

1:04:46And so we've been seeing these images over the past a few months, few weeks, year, whatever, of ICE officers forcibly entering people's homes. And we're wondering on what justification are they doing this? Well, this is actually shining some light on the internal processes that are happening behind the scenes that are allowing them to do just that. And it's obviously incredibly illegal. This whistleblower said that one instructor has reportedly resigned rather than teach this illegal behavior. As I said, it's illegal in the DHS's own training materials, which is why they're doing it all by word of mouth.

1:05:24And the only kind of legal opinions that they are basing this on are legal opinions from the Trump loyalists who they installed inside the Department of Homeland Security. Because the previous attorneys, the actual real attorneys who were in there, would never sign off on this. So Trump purged them. Trump gets rid of them. He brings in these new fake attorneys the same way he's brought in these fake attorneys everywhere else. These are just political hacks, to write a secret memo. It's a secret memo that says you have the authority to do this, that this is okay by the U.S. Constitution, even though it's not.

1:06:00It shows you that they know it's illegal because they're not letting anybody even read the memo. They're not even letting the agents or officers take notes while they're being told about the memo. They're trying to do this all in secret. They're trying to make this a secret off the books policy where to allow them to go after people. And so and then I just want to point out one other thing. There was a little footnote on the documentation that was leaked. And the footnote suggests that ICE may actually have authority to not only do this to people who have been ordered removed by the Trump regime, but to do this to anybody.

1:06:39So basically anybody is at risk. anybody can just be sitting at home and then ice comes in with a battering ram or kicks down your door or whatever and terrorizes your family i don't know like these are all red alerts i know we're dealing with like red alerts day after day after day and multiple every day but to me guys like this is one of the biggest attacks on our constitution of the from the trump regime from either of the trump administrations and this leak i actually think is like one of the most important leaks and one of the most important whistleblower documents and testimony that we have seen like

1:07:15Brett Meiselas:ever absolutely it's all so horrifying and that's what again that's why i i keep just putting my you know feet to the ground on this like this shouldn't be political and by that i mean like this shouldn't be a left versus right issue like what's happening right now with ice using five year olds as bait, just breaking into houses, just costs. That's not right. Like at a core human level, we should want to step back and be like, whoa, I think things maybe are getting a little out of control. They're killing protesters. They're killing mothers. Yeah. And then you have JD Vance up there with all this smugness doing this double speak.

1:07:55Brett Meiselas:And that's how I could just describe JD Vance every time he's, he has this like certain smugness about him, which is just so incredibly off-putting. I know that's his whole shtick. Like he likes doing it to, I guess, irk people. But he's not an intelligent guy. He's not. He's not a smart guy. He just plays this like weirdo victim-y type of mentality where he's always the oppressed one on the defense. And how could you guys not be looking at it from this angle? Come on. The whole thing to me. And I will always say it, Ben. I will always say it. This should not be a left or right issue. This should not even be a political thing.

1:08:31Brett Meiselas:what we should all be collectively witnessing right now from a core human level in the United States that is going on with ICE, that none of this is right.

1:08:39Ben Meiselas:I agree with you with mostly all of you said. I disagree with you when you said that J.D. Vance is not a smart guy. J.D. Vance is a super smart guy and he knows exactly what he's doing. To me, that's what actually makes it worse. He's a Yale Law grad and he's a chameleon and he knows how to shapeshift and come up with different personalities depending on the moment, right? I mean, and he's had three different identities in his life, different names and just overall different identities. I mean, growing up as a gay teenager and then saying that he was converted to not be gay. And then he was the hero from Appalachia, even though he grew up in the suburbs of Cincinnati.

1:09:29Ben Meiselas:I'm the hero of Appalachia. And I'm an anti-Trump guy. He called Trump Hitler. He was the guy. One of the first guys to call Trump Hitler was J.D. Vance. And J.D. Vance's kind of come up, if you will, was being the Appalachia anti-Trump guy. Trump's policies are going to kill people like me. And all throughout this time, just shifting names and identities. And then he became, and then by the way, worked with Peter Thiel. And then, you know, lots of money went from Peter Thiel to J.D. Vance. And no one really knew what was J.D. Vance even really doing. Like, you know, he wasn't like entrepreneurial, like what was, what was going on there?

1:10:12Ben Meiselas:And then J.D. Vance, you know, by backed by Teal, backed by Teal, launches a Senate race. And then now he's the pro-Trump guy and he's ultra MAGA and he's adopted this whole identity. And he convinces people that all those other identities from gay teenager to converted, no longer gay to, you know, to Appalachia hating Trump to, you know, to now pro, you know, ultra mega and hates immigrants, but he married an Indian woman and his kids are Indian. Um, you know, like, like the, the whole, the, the, the, the, the whole thing is utterly bizarre, but he, he knows what he's doing and he's, and he's sick.

1:11:00Ben Meiselas:He's a sick predator and he's an abuser and he knows how to manipulate. And when you watch him, he's using very manipulative tactics. And now he kind of shirks back as like this, I'm lovable. Come on, guys. What are we talking about? I just want to help get the sexual predators off. What are we doing here? And then he'll go to another room and he'll say the exact opposite. So obviously, be very careful of JD. But be very careful around that guy. But contrast that to Jack Smith. someone with integrity, high moral character, who's lived a life of discipline and hard work representing people his entire life.

1:11:42Ben Meiselas:So here was Jack Smith at the hearing today. I've done multiple videos, so I don't need to show all the Jack Smith clips again. But here was Jack Smith during his opening statement saying that he stands by his decision. Let's play that one. And then next I'll show you one of my other favorite moments with Congress member Moskowitz. But first, Jack Smith.

1:11:59Brett Meiselas:As I testify before the committee today, I want to be clear. I stand by my decisions as special counsel, including the decision to bring charges against President Trump. Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in criminal activity. If asked whether to prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether that president was a Democrat or a Republican. No one, no one should be above the law in this country, and the law required that he be held to account, so that is what I did. To have done otherwise on the facts of these cases would have been to shirk my duties as a prosecutor and as a public servant, of which I had no intention of doing.

1:12:52Ben Meiselas:Let me show you, Congress Member Moskowitz, what he had to say during the hearing, highlighting the hypocrisy by MAGA Republicans. Let's play it.

1:12:59Brett Meiselas:I hate talking about the present. But you know what? Let's talk about the past real quick. Here are some quotes, because I heard one of my colleagues call you a hypocrite. Here are some quotes from my colleagues.

1:13:08Ben Meiselas:Chairman Jordan, right after January 6th, stop the violence, support Capitol Police. Ted Cruz, those storming the Capitol need to stop right now.

1:13:16Brett Meiselas:The Constitution protects, but not violence. Chip Roy, today the People's House was attacked, which is an attack on the republic itself.

1:13:23Ben Meiselas:Steve Scalise, United States Capitol Police, saved my life. Lindsey Graham, when it comes to accountability, the president needs to understand his actions were the problem. Troy Nels, oh my God, him again.

1:13:34Brett Meiselas:I'm happy to stand shoulder to shoulder with Capitol Police, Daryl Issa. The violence and turmoil we witnessed in Washington, D.C. was completely unacceptable. Rep McClintock, the attack on Capitol strikes the most sacred act of our democracy. and former Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, whose name we heard a lot today. What did he have to say about it? Let me be clear. Last week's violence attack on the Capitol was undemocratic, un-American and criminal. And make no mistake, those who were responsible should be brought to justice. The president bears responsibility, period or exclamation point.

1:14:07Ben Meiselas:Exclamation point. And that, you know, the crazy thing was during this hearing throughout, you had all of these Republicans, you know, their whole thing was rewrite the history of January 6th. It was honestly frustrating to watch and appalling to watch because these people, there's no other conclusion you could really draw watching these Republicans in there, the questions they're asking, the way they're berating Jack Smith, other than that these people are just traitors who hate the United States, at least what the United States is supposed to stand for. And they want to take us into autocracy and they're just bad people, just bad, bad, bad people.

1:14:37It's good versus evil. That was on full display today. But the biggest irony of it all is they kept trying to attack Jack Smith and try to get him to make some sort of admission that wasn't true. They kept going one person after the next. So admit that president Biden forced you to go after Donald Trump. So admit, admit it. Merrick Garland said you need to arrest that admit it, admit that's what happened. And literally while these people are saying that and making these accusations that are not true. Donald Trump on his social media app is telling Pam Bondi to prosecute people, is telling Pam Bondi to prosecute Jack Smith, and he's had a history of basically almost every single day of telling his Department of Justice publicly via truth social post or verbally to go after certain people, whether the person is Don Lemon, whether it's Letitia James, whether it's you name it.

1:15:35James Comey, that's Trump's whole thing is weaponizing the government. And he's doing it in plain sight. And yet these projectionists are trying to act like that's what Jack Smith was doing. And that's what Merrick Garland was doing. And that's what Joe Biden was doing. Like stop with the deflections. Like Jordy said, this isn't left, right, center, Democrat, Republican, liberal, leftist, conservative, mag. This isn't any labels. This is just like, could you accept reality? This is reality. This is good versus evil. Could you be honest with people instead of having to lie about every damn thing?

1:16:09Moskowitz crushed it in there. I'm happy he brought a reality check to the comments that those people made when these events actually unfolded to just show how shameful they are in defending Donald Trump's actions today.

1:16:21Brett Meiselas:Absolutely. And the Republicans up there, you know, you look at the Jim Jordan, for example, and it's just they're so over the top, so heavy handed with it and just so intentionally disgusting that they're like trying to each audition for who gets the slot on Fox News later this night, later this evening. That's all they care about. They're like, hey, how can I get the best soundbite to make Donald Trump smile? Maybe he'll call me. And that's why they refer to this guy as daddy. Like it's a weird, weird relationship that they have with the president of the United States. None of this is normal.

1:16:56Brett Meiselas:And don't be gaslit by those around your corporate media into what we're watching, into thinking what we're watching. Any of this is normal because it's just simply not. And when you see it played out so perfectly, how Moskowitz just put a stamp on that, it's refreshing to see that there are folks out there that are willing to still fight.

1:17:14Ben Meiselas:A few data points I want to make sure I hit. First off, if you look at the generic ballot of independents only, and you look at this is from Emerson, one of the top pollers, Democrat, 50 percent support for independents, Republicans, 28 percent, not sure, 22 percent. I think that from what we've seen in all of these special elections, that late breaking probably goes 80 percent to Democrats. So I think you're looking at in a generic ballot somewhere in the range of 70 percent or more of independents going to be voting for Democrats. And I think that's going to make a big deal at the midterms. And that number just continues to grow.

1:17:59Ben Meiselas:The New York Times Siena came out with a poll. Donald Trump's approval there, only 40 percent on every issue. Donald Trump has massive, massive negatives. Some of the worst polling ever. And then Donald Trump's been very upset about how horrible the polling is. So Donald Trump starts going on social media and he's like, this is fake. I'm going to sue the New York Times. Just to give you some more gloss on the polling. Donald Trump's net negative 44 points on Epstein. His handling of Ukraine, negative 24. Cost of living, negative 29. Relationships with other countries, negative 19. Israel, Palestine, negative 17.

1:18:37Ben Meiselas:The economy, negative 18. And by the way, when Donald Trump was in Davos, he's like, things are great right now in the Middle East right now. No, they're not. First off, you've betrayed our Kurdish allies in northern Syria, and the Syrian democratic forces have been all but destroyed by al-Jelani or al-Sharar's regime. He was the leader of al-Qaeda and now runs Syria. And ISIS prisoners have been let out. It's been the ultimate portrayal of the Kurds who fought alongside the U.S. to stop ISIS. just yesterday alone, there were multiple journalists who were killed in Gaza and multiple other deaths of innocent Palestinians at the hands of Israeli forces yesterday.

1:19:15Ben Meiselas:So more atrocities continue to be committed there, which is not getting - Don't worry. Jared Kushner was out there at Davos pitching his new plan for Gaza that he ominously calls his master plan. And it's like even shocking that he even uses that language, his master plan for Gaza. And I'm not making this up. I'll show the video listeners just the screenshot right here. Here's Jared Kushner's massive plan. He's asking folks in Davos to get ready and invest because he's got a new real estate operation that he's doing in Gaza. He's going to create new Gaza and new Rafa. And they're like these AI slop images of like a futuristic city that he has for each that looks like that meme that shows like a futuristic city.

1:19:58Like this could be, you know, the United States if X and X happen. If you guys know like the meme I'm talking about. That's what these images look like. And he's asking for investment. You know, we need at least$25 billion to get started. And we need upwards of$112 billion in order to get this to where we want it to be. Who asked and what role does Jared Kushner have? Who gave you the land? Who gave you the Palestinians land? I mean, this is, it's a crazy thing that we are witnessing right now, where the president of the United States, his son-in-law for some reason is now given the authority to carve up these pieces of land after they were decimated, after thousands and thousands of people were brutally killed, buildings leveled, homes destroyed, families ripped apart, also that Jared Kushner could build a new fancy real estate development on top of the blood.

1:20:52This is like some sick stuff. I called it depraved earlier, but depraved, like there's no word that does it justice just how vile this shit is right and like it just none of it gets enough attention and i don't even blame honestly like the media or whatever for it there's just so much shit on a daily basis that is just so horrifying so evil i mean just so cartoonishly like we just

1:21:14Ben Meiselas:touched upon syria we just touched upon gaza we touched upon greenland like we didn't even talk about venezuela today right i mean you could talk you do a whole show in venezuela alone with propping up Delcy Rodriguez and the fact that now the regime there in Venezuela has kidnapped a lot more opposition pro-democracy forces. So they claim to let out like 33 prisoners, but then they brought back in like 53 prisoners. And it's just been the ultimate portrayal to anyone who was hoping that there would be a democracy there. Trump opens up a bank account for himself in Qatar. And that's where, and so Trump sells oil from Venezuela to right-wing oligarch friends of his, takes the proceeds, puts it in a bank in Qatar for himself, for Donald.

1:21:56Ben Meiselas:And that's where he wants the money that people pay to join his peace board, which he says he's the head of for his own life. And that money goes into a Qatari bank account. I also should reference Qatar as well, not just giving Donald Trump a private jet, but the 747 or whatever it is. But, you know, in Jared Kushner's one real estate project that he really did, 666 Fifth Avenue, which changed its name to 665th Avenue. They didn't like the name 666 Fifth Avenue. But the Qataris bailed Kushner out of that. That was his project during the first Trump regime. And then remember they did like Kushner supported a blockade of Qatar.

1:22:37Ben Meiselas:And then the way that Qatar got out of the blockade was, many people suspect was bailing out Kushner from 666 6th, Fifth Avenue. And now you have what you're seeing right now with Qatar being on that ridiculous board. You have Donald Trump suing J.P. Morgan. I'm not sure what's more embarrassing, frankly, though. Trump suing J.P. Morgan for saying that Trump was debanked or J.P. Morgan's statement in response. In response to being sued by Donald Trump in Miami for Trump claiming that he was debanked by J.P. Morgan. J.P. Morgan goes, while we regret Trump has sued us, we believe the suit has no merit.

1:23:16Ben Meiselas:We respect the president's right to sue us and our right to defend ourselves. That's what courts are for. We respect the guy's right to sue us. And by the way, Trump's opened up the Pandora's box there if he didn't have J.P. Morgan just completely rolling over because plus Donald Trump saying that he was debanked. Well, J.P. Morgan would say, great, well, we'll show you all the regulatory risks of your foreign entanglements and your tax issues and all of those things. And that's why we couldn't bank you. I'd love to see that trial go public, but I'm sure J.P. Morgan's not going to do the discovery that needs to happen.

1:23:52Ben Meiselas:They're not going to be aggressive. They'll file a motion to dismiss. The case will get dismissed. We'll cover the dismissal. Donald Trump will appeal it. He'll say it was an unfair judge. And then Trump gets the headline of suing JPMorgan Chase for$5 billion. No one really covers Trump's loss. And then JPMorgan doesn't do the discovery it's supposed to do because they don't want to make Donald Trump mad. So that's the typical pattern that we see, like when Donald Trump sued the Wall Street Journal, when they did great reporting on Trump's letter to Epstein for Epstein's 50th birthday, right? If you were doing that case normally, the first thing you would do with Wall Street Journal is you would take Donald Trump's deposition right away.

1:24:31Ben Meiselas:Go to notice his depot. Trump's never going to sit for a depot on that. You have a free depot. If Trump sued me, I noticed his deposition right a freaking way. But instead, Wall Street Journal files a motion to dismiss. I'm sure Trump's case will be dismissed. Trump will go, unfair, weaponized judge, wah, wah, wah, my baby. And then the case will get appealed and nobody will really focus on it. That's the MO here. And then Trump will raise money by going to his supporters. He's like, what trump's recent email to supporters was like do you hear my maga cry and it's like ben i've been crying all night it's my maga cry will you please help me and something it's it's just

1:25:12Brett Meiselas:utterly what's that there but i don't want to lose this on the jp morgan thing because this this is just retribution for jamie diamond saying that he's not going to donate to the ballroom this that was a couple months ago i forget the exact forum he was at but jamie uh but jamie Diamond clearly stated that he wasn't, he was scared of pretty much future prosecution because the whole thing just feels and stinks of corruption. So he said, we're not going to, we're not going to contribute to that. What happens two and a half months later, Trump sues the guy over something that happened five years ago.

1:25:44Brett Meiselas:The timing of this is also suspect. To me, it couldn't be more clear why Trump has decided to sue him now. What do you think about that?

1:25:51Ben Meiselas:Yeah, I agree with you. Look, the whole thing is so clowning. I mean,$5 billion. Okay, Donald,$5 billion. His defamation case against Wall Street Journal is$10 billion. This is$10 billion. This guy is a clown. He is weak. He is pathetic. He is a clown. He is a horrible human being. Yes, he is evil. Jordy, when you were talking about J.D. Vance, I wasn't trying to prop up J.D. Vance in any way, but there's a difference. J.D. Vance is a horrible human being and a total fake and a fraud of a human being who's very calculating his changes. And he'll do whatever he needs to do to survive. Horrible human.

1:26:34Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump is like the worst type of human. It's even worse in every level. And he's pathetic and he's weak. And it's just stop with this crap. Just stop it. And the world and the banks and the business leaders and our leaders need to just stand up to this guy. The people are standing. I'll leave everybody with this. The people are standing up to him. Look at what the people of Minneapolis and St. Paul and other towns and cities in Minnesota are doing. They're standing up to it. Part of J.D. Vance going there was because people are standing up and the regime realizes that it's also tanking Donald Trump right now because they thought they were going to be able to make the people completely give up.

1:27:17And

1:27:18Ben Meiselas:no, the people are doing a general strike in Minnesota tomorrow or today, depending on when you're listening to this. That's what's going down. That's what's going on. The people are standing up. The people have been resilient where the leaders have been pathetic. And it's people power that save the day. It's this community. It's you watching this and listening. That's been the difference maker. But for that, we'd be in a way more difficult time period right now. And I know things aren't easy, but the people have stood up. And I think that's a really important thing. And I'll leave everybody with that, that people power has won the day.

1:27:55Ben Meiselas:So that's my final message. Brett, I'll let you give your final. Yeah, my final message is the same, that we need to continue to stay strong, that perseverance is half the battle, more than half the battle, quite frankly, I feel like it's 90 % of it. They want to knock us down. We got to stay standing. And by the way, that's one of the reasons why we've expanded our coverage, you know, in order to ensure that there are partnerships and we had people on the ground in Minneapolis to capture what's actually going on there so that they can't use AI images and all this other bullshit in order to try to use propaganda and lie to the American people.

1:28:28It's why we have a congressional, a DC bureau right now with a congressional reporter in DC who's asking these lawmakers from both sides of the aisle the questions that you want answered, holding their feet to the fire over the top issues of the day, driving the conversation, driving the narrative, making sure that the voices of this community are heard. Right now, we all need to continue to speak out. We need to continue to use our energy and our voices and just stay in this fight. It's an honor to be here with my brothers to do this show and to be at this network and be doing these reports every single day.

1:29:06And it's an honor to be here with you, the Midas Mighty. So thank you, thank you, thank you very much. Jordy, why don't you take us out? Shout out to the Midas Mighty!

1:29:33Brett Meiselas:Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.

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