MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 5/5/26

5 May 2026 · 1 h 31 min · 31 chapters

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In short

The episode is a rapid-fire political news roundup focused on three main claims: (1) a dangerous escalation in the Strait of Hormuz, triggered by Trump’s “Project Freedom” naval escort/blockade messaging and resulting Iranian strikes (including attacks on two ships and the UAE’s Port of Fujairah). The hosts argue Trump’s public statements created “escalatory ambiguity,” while U.S. and CENTCOM messaging conflicted for hours. They cite Iran officials warning that any U.S. interference would violate a ceasefire and describe Iran’s framing of the U.S. Navy as “pirates,” including Trump’s own bragging about taking over a cargo ship. (2) Domestic cover-up allegations: Pam Bondi is reportedly being shielded from an under-oath, videotaped deposition. The hosts claim House Oversight Chair James Comer is steering toward an informal, transcribed interview without oath/video, with Harmeet Dillon (DOJ’s top civil rights official) serving as Bondi’s personal lawyer. (3) Economy blame: Spirit Airlines’ bankruptcy is used to argue the administration blames Biden while jet fuel costs and other pressures are driving failures.

Guests

Ben Miseselis is joined by Brett and Jordy; no external guests are named in the transcript.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

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Trump's Escalating Conflict with Iran

3:20 to 5:30

Discussion on Trump's military actions and rhetoric regarding Iran.

“Donald Trump then tries to say, well, you know, those places have nothing to do with us anyway.”

Analysis of Trump's Military Claims

5:31 to 7:40

Analyzing Trump's claims about military maneuvers and their implications.

“I mean, over the weekend, folks, Donald Trump announces on a social media post that American naval forces are going to be going into the Strait of Hormuz escorting ships there.”

The Reality of Global Politics

7:41 to 10:10

A critical look at Trump's behavior in the context of international relations.

“This is an AI meme that Donald Trump posted.”

Piracy Claims and U.S. Naval Actions

10:11 to 14:00

Exploration of the U.S. Navy's actions and the perception of these as piracy.

“When Donald Trump says the naval blockade, the single greatest military maneuver in American history.”

U.S. Navy and Piracy Discussion

14:00 to 15:00

Exploration of Donald Trump's comments about the U.S. Navy's actions and the perception of piracy.

“done incredible things like to use the Navy as a bunch of pirates taking over cargo ships.”

Escalation in the Strait of Hormuz

15:00 to 17:00

Analysis of recent tensions and military posturing in the Strait of Hormuz involving Iran.

“I mean, the words of the United States president matter.”

Trump's Economic Claims and Airline Bankruptcies

17:00 to 19:00

Discussion on Trump's claims of economic success contrasted with airline bankruptcies, particularly Spirit Airlines.

“two ships challenged Iran's control of the Strait of the Moon.”

Trump's Cognitive Exams Commentary

19:00 to 21:00

Examination of Trump's repeated remarks about his cognitive exams during speeches and their implications.

“I mean, Trump just has to lie about literally everything.”

The Absurdity of Trump's Focus

21:00 to 23:20

Critique of Trump's focus on cognitive exams amidst serious global tensions and military actions.

“Are we going back to open hostilities again?”

Political Consequences and Global Perception

23:20 to 28:00

Discussion on the political ramifications of Trump's actions and statements on the U.S. standing globally.

“I mean, he's playing small high school gyms at this point.”
Show all 31 chapters

Reclaiming Pro-Democracy Values

28:00 to 29:00

Discussion on the absurdity and danger of current political narratives.

“we're able to sort of like reclaim, hopefully, right, this pro-democracy, like love of this country is how are they even going to teach this?”

Control of the Strait of Hormuz

29:00 to 30:00

Analyzing claims about U.S. control over the Strait of Hormuz and its implications.

“I think the Iranians are starting to believe their own propaganda.”

The Epstein Controversy

30:00 to 30:50

Humorous examination of bizarre claims regarding Epstein and Bondi.

“The Lutnik impression is just getting better with each episode.”

Testimony Dynamics in Congress

30:50 to 32:20

Discussion on the nature of testimonies and depositions in Congress.

“You brought your children with you to Epstein's Island.”

The Economic Argument

32:20 to 33:20

Debate on the implications of economic metrics in political accountability.

“You know where the Dow, the Dow should not be a metric of anything, but if they just let Biden's economy roll on, I know they love the Dow and their stock market as a metric.”

Bondi's Testimony and Political Implications

35:30 to 42:00

Deep dive into the implications of Bondi's upcoming testimony and political maneuvers.

“This episode of the Midas Touch podcast is brought to you by Wild Grain.”

Concerns Over DOJ's Handling of Interviews

42:00 to 43:36

The discussion revolves around the implications of a DOJ official acting as a private lawyer and the validity of transcribed interviews.

“who's a top DOJ official who used to run a private law practice, that she's now going to be serving as the personal attorney of Bondi, the former attorney general, and the new person who may become the attorney general?”

Marjorie Taylor Greene's Controversial Statements

43:36 to 45:05

Analyzing Marjorie Taylor Greene's speech and her stance on releasing Epstein files.

“And the Democrats are saying this has to be videotape.”

Resistance to Transparency on Epstein Files

45:05 to 47:59

Discussion on the political resistance faced when trying to release Epstein-related documents.

“That's what I had been told all along, right?”

Cover-Up Allegations Against Trump and DOJ

47:59 to 50:26

Exploring the allegations that Trump's administration is trying to cover up information regarding Epstein's case.

“That's when the entire thing shattered for me.”

Justice for Epstein Survivors

50:26 to 52:48

A plea for justice and accountability for survivors of Epstein's abuse, emphasizing the non-political nature of the issue.

“The major red line, and this should say everything to you, that the major red line for Donald Trump in kind of rebuking Marjorie Taylor Greene.”

The Impact of Trump's Distraction Tactics

52:48 to 56:00

Discussion on how Trump's tactics may be aimed at distracting from pressing issues like the Epstein case and the war in Iran.

“There's that, like, there should not be anything political about that.”

The Power of Lies and Deception

56:00 to 59:00

Explore how relentless lies shape public perception and political power.

“I know the American people aren't buying that one, but with Epstein, he can't get rid of it.”

Attorney General Todd Blanche's Controversial Claims

1:02:52 to 1:10:01

Dive into Todd Blanche's statements on legal proceedings involving Trump and Comey.

“You should be speaking to everybody when you speak to the audio listeners, because I'm sure everybody who's watching here on YouTube is also an audio listener, right?”

Political Violence and Conspiracy Theories

1:10:01 to 1:13:22

Discussion on political violence, conspiracies, and accountability related to the Trump regime.

“i see it in the chat right now as we're saying this people are writing it But, you know, it's a ridiculous it's a ridiculous thing.”

Spirit Airlines Bankruptcy and Blame

1:13:23 to 1:17:08

Analysis of Spirit Airlines' bankruptcy and how blame is shifted onto political figures.

“And I'll just jump off that, then I'll show Janine Pirro in a second.”

Propaganda and Disinformation Tactics

1:17:09 to 1:20:02

Exploration of MAGA propaganda techniques and their impact on public perception.

“Like, first off, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden do not have unilateral control over these sorts of things.”

Judicial Manipulations and Investigations

1:20:03 to 1:23:32

Examination of the misuse of investigations based on rumors and political maneuvering.

“Like, like, you don't believe any word he's saying, like, this guy is a weak and pathetic loser.”

Judge's Role in Settlement Discussions

1:24:05 to 1:25:19

Learn about the judge's challenges in ruling on a complex case involving Trump.

“And she's like, whoa, I don't have jurisdiction over this.”

Democratic Senators Question Trump Judge Nominees

1:25:23 to 1:28:47

Explore the questioning of Trump's judicial nominees regarding constitutional amendments and election results.

“Over last week, you had a hearing with all these federal judges who Trump wants to appoint in various districts.”

Closing Thoughts on Judicial Appointments

1:28:55 to 1:30:09

Hear insights on the implications of appointing unqualified judges by Trump.

“I'm sure we'll be going live with more breaking news also after this.”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

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0:48Ben Meiselas:Mecham Auctions, the world's largest collector car auction company, returns to Indianapolis for Dana Mecham's 39th original spring classic,

0:57Jordy Meiselas:May 8th to the 16th at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Join us for the fun, fast-paced, high-energy Mecham experience with 3 ,000 vehicles up for grabs. For avid collectors, first-time buyers, and enthusiasts of all ages, there's something for everyone. Register to bid and buy spectator tickets now at Mecham.com.

1:19Ben Meiselas:Mecham Auctions, the world's largest collector car auction company, returns to Indianapolis for Dana Mecham's 39th original spring classic, May 8th to the 16th at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

1:31Jordy Meiselas:Join us for the fun, fast-paced, high-energy Mecham experience with 3 ,000 vehicles up for grabs. For avid collectors, first-time buyers, and enthusiasts of all ages, there's something for everyone. Register a bid and buy spectator tickets now at Mecham.com. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? ZepBound terzepatide may be able to help. ZepBound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off.

2:09Jordy Meiselas:ZepBound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15 milligram injection. ZepBound contains terzepatide and should not be used with other terzepatide-containing products or any GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines. It is not known if ZepBound is safe and effective for use in children. Don't share needles or pens or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it, or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer, or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop ZepBound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction.

2:47Jordy Meiselas:Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia, if you're nursing, pregnant, plan to be, or taking birth control pills. Taking ZepBound with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-5979 or visit zepbounce.lily.com.

3:19Ben Meiselas:A sudden and massive escalation in Donald Trump's unlawful and catastrophic war in Iran. The Trump regime threatening to send a Navy forces into the Strait of Hormuz, which then leads to Iran striking nearby targets in the United Arab Emirates, the Port of Fujairah, as well as two ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a UAE tanker, as well as a South Korean ship. Donald Trump then tries to say, well, you know, those places have nothing to do with us anyway. And I think the naval blockade is still working. Meanwhile, there is a massive ramp up of military assets right now by the United States and Israel in the Middle East.

4:02Ben Meiselas:We're going to keep you posted on the developments there. Also, Pam Bondi apparently trying to avoid having to sit for a deposition. The Trump regime's latest position working with James Comer on the House Oversight Committee, MAGA Republican James Comer, is that Pam Bondi will not sit for a deposition. Instead, she will provide an interview and it's going to not be under oath and they don't want it to be videotaped and they want to have a top DOJ official, Harmeet Dillon, be the personal lawyer of Pam Bondi while she's the top DOJ lawyer. I mean, Hermit Dillon's like the number three person there.

4:46Ben Meiselas:And they're saying, well, because it's no longer a deposition and it's an informal interview, not on videotape, we think we can do this right now. I mean, folks, this is red flag city right here. We'll break that down. Also, we'll talk about Donald Trump and his regime trying to blame everyone but themselves for this horrible economy as Spirit Airlines declared bankruptcy over this weekend. And officially, the Trump regime rushed to blame Biden. You have the Agriculture Secretary, Brooke Rollins, blaming Biden for beef prices going up. I mean, it's just blame, blame, blame, blame, blame the opposite of leadership.

5:25Ben Meiselas:We'll talk about all of this and more in this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. I'm Ben Myselis, joined by Brett and Jordy. We've got a lot to discuss. I mean, over the weekend, folks, Donald Trump announces on a social media post that American naval forces are going to be going into the Strait of Hormuz escorting ships there. And then he says this is part of something called Project Freedom, which they announced last week, something by that name as well, which wasn't actually sending our Navy into the Strait of Hormuz, right? It was working in a defensive way to just coordinate and provide information to like insurance companies that like are insuring ships in the region.

6:04Ben Meiselas:And so, but Trump said, we're escorting ships. And then so CENTCOM kind of had to like get behind that and said, yeah, that's what we're doing in a defensive way. And, you know, it was just creating this escalatory ambiguity. And I think Iran saw certain ship movements from the United Arab Emirates, two ships, the South Korean ship and a UAE ship tried to test Iran's control over the Strait of Hormuz. So Iran knocked out these two ships, which was initially denied by the Trump regime. Then I think there was an attempt by the U.S. to maybe bring some of its Navy ships in. Then Iran responded with warning strikes.

6:42Ben Meiselas:And then the U.S. Navy ship pulled away. And then Iran hit UAE's Port of Fujairah, where there's like an oil pipeline there that was being used by the UAE to try to send oil around the blockade. And so, you know, that's, we have a video of what it looked like right now, that Port of Fujairah. So that's where we're at right now. And of course, we'll keep everybody posted as there are more developments happening. Trump's calling this a mini war and saying the blockade is the single greatest military maneuver in American history. That's what he told Fox, the single greatest military maneuver in American history.

7:17Ben Meiselas:Roger. Move over D-Day.

7:20Jordy Meiselas:Donald Trump has all the cards and this blockade is the best military maneuver the world has ever seen. Ever, ever, ever. Just a clown show day in, day out. And it's so incredibly dangerous. First, I want to say, hey, what's up, brothers? What's up, Midas Mighty? It's so great to be here with everybody today, breaking down all the news. You know, I think one of the funniest comments that I saw came from our own Midas Touch editor-in-chief, Ron Filipkowski, who when Donald Trump was posting these ridiculous memes throughout the weekend, saber rattling with the Ron, like this one where he showed a handful of Uno cards with wild cards.

7:57Jordy Meiselas:And he said, I have all the cards. This is an AI meme that Donald Trump posted. Ron Philip Kasky noted in Uno, when you have all the cards, that means you're losing. That means you're losing the battle. And so Donald Trump clearly not one to really have any sort of self-awareness with these issues. I just think back to during the Biden administration when every day, I remember last episode, we were speaking about how they would constantly be screaming fire and it was, you know, aliens and this and that. There'd always be a distraction of the day. But also, do you guys remember that they would constantly be saying, this is World War III.

8:33Jordy Meiselas:World War III is happening. World War III is starting. World War III would trend on Twitter like every day when the tiniest things would happen. Like, and now there's a major global incident every day. Donald Trump just lies about it. We spent the entire morning trying to get clarity on what the hell was happening with these American ships and Iran firing on American ships. And the CENTCOM and the United States government denied it for hours and hours and hours until finally admitting that Iran did indeed fire on the ships and the U.S. ships fired back. It's really such a shame that we can no longer trust anything coming out of the U.S.

9:08Jordy Meiselas:government. But, you know, I think it's our responsibility here at the Midas Touch Network and as a community to do what we can to break through all the noise. And so that's what we're going to do as best we can. Jordy, it's great to see you. What's the latest on your end?

9:21Brett Meiselas:Brothers, great to see you. Midas Mighty, great to be here. Pumped to get into tonight's show. Look, this guy, Donald Trump, he's an absolute putz. I mean, there couldn't be a worse person, quote unquote, in charge, if you could say he's in charge, in charge of this right now. in this moment of history, in this moment of time, he is absolutely the worst person to be at the helm, to be steering the ship. And I just I'm like genuinely fearful of what's going on. I said this weeks ago, I say it a lot during these shows. It's like it's going to continue to get worse, continue to escalate in ways that I don't think we could even comprehend just yet.

9:56Brett Meiselas:And I'm not here to make predictions, especially with something so serious, but I'm just reacting to the data that we're continuing to see every day. And it's deeply troubling. A lot to get into, a lot of news today. Pump for the show. Brothers, might is mighty. Let's do this. Benji, where do you want to start off today?

10:12Ben Meiselas:Right. When Donald Trump says the naval blockade, the single greatest military maneuver in American history. So your plan to open the Strait of Hormuz was to further blockade the Strait of Hormuz. and you view that as the greatest military maneuver in American history, while you then make deranged social media posts constantly saying that Iran is surrendering, Iran is giving up, Iran's going to blow up in three days, and then Iran doesn't blow up in three days. The oil pressure in the pipelines is such that Iran's just going to implode. It's going to explode. We've got them right where we want them.

10:49Ben Meiselas:The leadership is in bunkers. They don't even know who their leaders are right now. Their Navy's been destroyed. Their air force has been destroyed. They're leaderless. They sent us another offer and it's a bad one. And so I'm rejecting it. Iran wants to, everything is made up, like quite literally, as I've said, Donald Trump has created like his weird version of Game of Thrones, dystopian Trumpian edition. And it's, and it is None of the facts are true, but he casts different characters in this thing. It's like a weirdo version of The Apprentice, and none of it's tethered to reality. By the way, it's why the European leaders right now, Zelensky, European leaders, Prime Minister Carney, they're right now being serious.

11:37Ben Meiselas:They're meeting in Yerevan in Armenia, which is kind of a big deal that Armenia is pulling further away from Russia, but there's a big European meeting, And Canada has been invited and Ukraine is playing a major role while Donald Trump is out there behaving like a jester, while Donald Trump is out there behaving so clownish and cartoonishly weird and it's dangerous and people are just ignoring it. Like there are serious world meetings taking place and Donald Trump's been out there. What has he done in the past? What, 48 hours, 72 hours? Well, he went to Florida because there was a PGA tournament at his Doral Golf Club, which was like the lowest energy, worst attended PGA tournament, like in PGA history.

12:21Ben Meiselas:So Donald Trump goes there on the taxpayer a dime. He holds like a press conference at the villages in a high school there in front of a group of senior citizens where Trump's like, I'm not a senior citizen. And then he holds another event at like this Palm Beach club near Mar-a-Lago. You know, and at these Florida events, he's like making weird noises. He's doing that thing where he goes like, and it's very weird. I mean, and by the way, Iran's watching this, like they're posting this on social media and saying, you got to get this guy help. Like he's a deranged man. Iran's posting this video here.

12:58Ben Meiselas:Let's play this clip.

13:03Jordy Meiselas:Come on, darling. The mother's screaming like, darling, I love you. I don't, mom, I can't do it.

13:09Ben Meiselas:You know, and one of the things that Iran has been calling the U.S. out for is that they've said the powerful United States Navy has now become a bunch of pirates. And Iran's been saying this since Donald Trump did this naval blockade, because Trump will brag. The U.S. Navy just took over a cargo ship that we believe is linked to Iran. And then, like, they'll release video of it. Meanwhile, there's still a lot of Iranian ships that are getting through this blockade. But like the U.S. Navy is bragging about taking over cargo ships that aren't like that. Yes, they're affiliated with Iran, but they're like companies like they're like company cargo ships, like bringing over like products over to China.

13:54Ben Meiselas:and like the Navy's bragging about it. And Brett, you gave and Jordi, you guys were talking about the beginning of this episode, like actual American military victories where the Navy's done incredible things like to use the Navy as a bunch of pirates taking over cargo ships. It's a weird flex to brag about. And Iran would say, you're behaving like pirates, you're behaving like pirates. So what does Donald Trump do on while he's in Florida giving these speeches, he goes, oh, I guess you can say we're pirates. We're like pirates, like as though that's a good thing that like the power of the U.S.

14:30Ben Meiselas:Navy is now pirates. Here, play this clip. And there was no response. Turn your ship around.

14:36Jordy Meiselas:Evacuate your engine room immediately. And you see all these guys running out of there. Now, they're five miles away. And one shot into the engine room, blew up the engine room. The ship stopped. They used tugboats. And then we landed on top of it on top of everything else we then land on top of it and we took over the ship we took over the cargo took over the oil it's a very profitable business who would have thought we were doing that we're like pirates we're sort of like pirates but we're not playing games because

15:10Ben Meiselas:you know for 47 years iran has been pushing everybody around oran takes that video and they say ha look you see he's admitted that they're pirates and they show that to their people and and say, look, this is what America's bragging about, piracy. I mean, the words of the United States president matter. It's one of the things that when King Charles visited, he actually said in the joint session of the House and Senate, it was a message directed at Trump, which is the words of the United States still matter. And so words need to be picked very, very carefully. And Trump is so reckless with his words, his behavior, his conduct.

15:46Ben Meiselas:It is such an utter lack of leadership right now that it is causing this massive global realignment in a very short period of time it's on fast forward so then today donald trump crashing out in the white house after all of the updates that i've talked about the massive escalation taking place right from over the weekend trump talking about this project freedom thing and that we're going to be sending the united states navy to escort ships and uh you know then u.s officials always have to like They go to the press, go, actually, this isn't what this is about. What this is really about is just helping insurance companies and ships find out the latest updates about when the Strait of Hormuz might be open.

16:29Ben Meiselas:And then there was, again, this escalatory ambiguity because Trump's words are so reckless and careless, and Trump says we're going in. And then CENTCOM publishes that we have ships that are in the Strait of Hormuz, and that didn't happen. But they say we've got ships in the Strait of Hormuz and we were escorting ships out and things are going great. And so Iran sees this. Iran sees some movements happening from the UAE. And that's why Iran says, OK, I guess, you know, we're going to strike the Port of Fajera because if you're making moves there, we got to make sure that, you know, that we neutralize any way to circumvent the naval blockade.

17:08Ben Meiselas:two ships challenged Iran's control of the Strait of the Moon. That's why Iran hit the South Korean ship and the UAE ship. So a lot of very serious things happening. Iran's leadership are sending stern warnings, basically saying, we control it. We're going to unleash things like you've never seen before in the war. We're ready to go. We're ready to go. I mean, you have over here, for example, the head of Iran's National Security Commission and the Iran parliament literally saying, warning, any American interference in the new maritime regime of the Strait of Hormuz will be considered a violation of the ceasefire.

17:46Ben Meiselas:The Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf would not be managed by Trump's delusional post. No one would believe blame game scenarios than one of Iran's other top military leaders and spokespeople were saying the element of surprise is no longer a secret. It has become a reality knocking at our doors. Expect an earthquake that will wipe out years of arrogance in a matter of hours. Tonight, perhaps a new chapter of power will unfold. One, the adversaries have never witnessed before. Now, so that's what they're posting. Let's show Donald Trump's post as I'm like, ah, you know, at the end of the day, these are just like other countries.

18:21Ben Meiselas:It's South Korea. Maybe South Korea needs to be the one who steps up and they should maybe join the war with us. South Korea, this is an opportunity for you to join Trump Post. Iran has taken some shots at unrelated nations with respect to the ship movement, Project Freedom, including the South Korean cargo ship. Perhaps it's time for South Korea to come and join in the mission. We've shot down seven small boats, or as they like to call them, fast boats is all they have left. Other than the South Korean ship, there has been at this moment no damage going through the strait. And he says the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Hegseth are both going to be speaking to the American people tomorrow, likely to just spread more lies.

19:01Ben Meiselas:But that's already false. Seven ships were not hit by Iran. That was another lie. I mean, Trump just has to lie about literally everything. A UAE ship was destroyed and the UAE announced that. The Port of Fajera was hit and the strike on that area, again, which is very strategically important because the UAE was using that specific location to try to get oil through pipelines to circumvent the Strait of Hormuz. Well, the fire there is worse than what we've seen any other strike thus far against that same port of Fujairah, even in March when we would say the hostilities were at its peak. And then so Donald Trump speaks in the White House today.

19:48Ben Meiselas:It was some weird small business forum where Donald Trump claimed we brought in 18 or$21 trillion and nobody can believe how much money we brought in. Things are amazing. Everybody's rich. That's what they're going to. By the way, this ties into what we'll talk about in a little bit with Spirit Airlines, which is if you're saying you brought in 18 to $21 trillion, you're saying you couldn't do a$500 million bailout for Spirit Airlines. I mean, let's just use some basic logic, folks. If you're saying we're in a golden age, nobody can believe how great we are. Prices are down and things are amazing.

20:20Ben Meiselas:Why did the head of Spirit Airlines say that the reason they went bankrupt is because the jet fuel prices have basically doubled and they can't afford the jet fuel prices? Why are you blaming Biden? You're the guy who says lower prices, golden age, 18 to$21 trillion here. So you're the guy bragging about that stuff. So why are these companies going bankrupt? It's because Trump lies about everything. But anyway, Trump's giving this address in the White House today. And what does Donald Trump talk about? Well, all eyes are on the White House, right? And I'm sure even the European leaders who are in Yerevan in Armenia, they're like, okay, what's this guy going to be talking about?

Read the full transcript

21:00Ben Meiselas:Because it's getting real. Are we going back to open hostilities again? What's happening right now? Donald Trump takes the podium and he goes, folks, I have an important announcement. I kid you not. I have an important announcement to make. I've taken multiple cognitive exams and I can identify squirrels. Squirrels. Play the clip. administration. You know, one of the things I said is that we should have, in my opinion,

21:31Jordy Meiselas:anybody running for president or vice president should take a cognitive test. And no president has ever taken one except me. I've taken three of them and I've aced each one. One in the first administration, two over here. And whenever they get a little sassy, like, does he still have it? does he still have what it takes i say all right i'll take another one and they are hard there are many people in this room i know that is smart they're not going to ace him there are many people standing back there the fake news media that i'd like to have them you know the first question is very easy and they always show the first question is you have a lion a bear an alligator and a what's another good a squirrel okay which is the squirrel so they show that question and then the first four or five questions are they get a little more difficult by the time you get to the middle they're tough all right we get the point but just so you know he's been doing since we always know

22:31Ben Meiselas:he talks about the cognitive exam stuff but when he was in florida in the two speeches he brought it up multiple times today he wasn't just that one instance there was a good seven minutes of this speech maybe longer he was talking about cognitiveism i'm just going to show you a brief portion in florida just so i can bring the receipt so you know you know this isn't any sleight of hand this isn't like this is what he's been talking about consistently i just played for a short a short clip of it it goes on and on and on but you're just in florida what was he talking about let's

23:05Jordy Meiselas:I took three of them, aced all of them, by the way.

23:10Ben Meiselas:Okay, we don't need to hear any more of that. And they clap for him. They laugh and they clap for him. You know, both in the White House, they thought that was, like, funny. And then over there, you know, in Florida, his crowds are much, much smaller. I mean, he's playing small high school gyms at this point. But he's packing small high school gyms of about 400 people. And they, like, love it. They, like, love it. exam, everybody.

23:35Jordy Meiselas:I mean, Ben, it's hard though. I mean, could you identify a squirrel out of all those animals? I mean, that sounds like a very difficult thing. Hey, what is it? Which one's the tiger? Which one is the elephant? Which one's the squirrel? I don't know. This is very hard. Why do they keep giving me these exams? I don't know. It must be because I'm so smart that they're giving me the exams multiple times a year to test for dementia. That must be it. Have you guys heard my plan, by the way, to lower the national debt? Because I think this is a pretty foolproof of strategy. I was getting some good motion on this online when I pitched it.

24:07Jordy Meiselas:But my plan is, you know, he talks, he loves talking about these exams, the cognitive exams, how good he is at taking it. So here's what I'll say. Okay, Donald, I want to see it. I mean, you're apparently the best at it. And I think the entire country deserves to witness your greatness in this area with the cognitive exam. So let's do the cognitive exam live. Okay. We could even host it on the Midas Touch Network, okay? We'll do a pay-per-view kind of style here. People will pay to watch this, and we, I think, could solve the national debt in one full swing right here by having people pay to watch Donald Trump take the cognitive exam live, and let's just see how you do.

24:45Jordy Meiselas:I want to see you identify that squirrel, okay? I want to see you identify that elephant. Show me your best, Donald. Let's actually see what is going on here. It is so insane that this guy just rambles and rambles and rambles about this. It would be insane if we were in peacetime, but it's especially deranged when we are in a time of war right now, where, as Ben said, the entire world is looking at his words and is looking at what he's going to say and looking at what he's going to do. And they just see this idiot, this idiot there who has no idea what he is doing. And I've just never seen, frankly, a president look so weak on the global stage.

25:25Jordy Meiselas:I mean, And Ben mentioned that the post before of Donald Trump asking South Korea to get involved in the war. You know, please, South Korea, please, maybe this will convince you to join us, right? I thought you didn't need anybody to join you. Now you're begging South Korea. Earlier, Scott Besant was on TV, Treasury Secretary, and he was like, well, maybe China will do the right thing and they'll step up and they'll help us out with the Strait of Hormuz. when you're asking China to join you in this effort, I think that pretty much shows, proves, that you are losing this thing badly, badly. And you look like absolute clowns.

26:03Jordy Meiselas:You are showing your weakness and you are showing just how desperate you are.

26:10Brett Meiselas:Absolutely be. And look, Donald Trump, MAGA, acing a cognitive test is not the flex you think it is. It's just simply not. we're still talking about cognitive tests. I mean, we're still doing, he's still doing this bit. It's crazy to me. And just the lack of any self-awareness here, like, yeah, Brett, to your point, hey, maybe it's odd that I'm taking a couple of cognitive tests per day. That should be, you know, I don't know, maybe a red flag or five red flags. This is an issue. And the issue is that's That's the president of the United States right now. That man right there that goes into the high school gymnasium size crowds and brags about his cognitive tests during a time of war, during a time when there are literal lives on the line for our troops, for many people around the globe.

27:02Brett Meiselas:And Donald Trump, every step of the way is embarrassing us, is embarrassing the country, is embarrassing us as individuals and, you know, like unwillful participants in whatever Donald Trump is doing, we get associated with because of just how chaotic and with zero sort of a strategy is implemented behind MAGA and this entire regime. Look, there is zero plan. There is zero tact. And there is zero idea and actually thinking of what is going on behind any of the moves that he's making. That's why everything feels so disjointed. That's why he'll say something and then CECOM will say something else.

27:40Brett Meiselas:Or he'll say something and then HexS will say this. They don't have a plan. They simply don't. And the issue with that, again, is that there are lives on the line. There's monetary issues on the line. The economy is on the line. And the guy that's bragging about identifying a squirrel, that's who's in charge? I, it infuriates me in such a way to where I just think like five, 10, 15 years down the line, we're able to sort of like reclaim, hopefully, right, this pro-democracy, like love of this country is how are they even going to teach this? Like, how are you even going to quantify this individual?

28:17Brett Meiselas:Because it's just so utterly absurd. And I'm not saying absurd in like a funny way, right? Like this is really dangerous and despicable shit that we see day in and day out. And it leads to just mass chaos and us, the United States, being embarrassed globally.

28:33Ben Meiselas:Well, look at Treasury Secretary Scott Besson, who, you know, by all accounts, previously was a smart guy, an accomplished guy. He joins the Trump regime. He becomes one of the biggest sycophants. And he's like, what should be known is that we control the Strait of Hamus. We control it. We got it. It's ours. We control it. Here, did you see him? Did you see him earlier today? Let's play that clip. Let's level set here.

29:01Jordy Meiselas:I think the Iranians are starting to believe their own propaganda. And just to be clear, the leadership is the hunkered down in bunkers all over the country. And I don't think they know what's going on. But what is going on is that they're reduced. Their Navy is not a Navy anymore. It's a band of pirates. They are trying to cut off international freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. And the U.S. is opening that up. This is a humanitarian effort. I can tell you two weeks ago was IMF World Bank Week in Washington. And I had numerous countries come up to me, some of the poorest, some of the most vulnerable, and ask us to do this because it's not only energy that's in there.

29:44Jordy Meiselas:It's fertilizer. It's food transport. It's LPG for the more than more than the billion plus people in India used to cook. So we are saying the Iranians do not have control of the strait. We have absolute control of the strait. we have blockaded the ships going into or out of iranian ports their economy is in free fall and everyone says they have the uh high tolerance for pain well their soldiers will not have a high

30:12Ben Meiselas:tolerance for not getting paid this guy's wrong about everything who controls the strait of her moves we don't control the strait of them i don't know how you even get up there and you lie with such a, yeah, we control, we don't control, whether it's him, whether it's Lutnik, I've never seen Jeffrey Epstein again after 2005.

30:37Brett Meiselas:The Lutnik impression is just getting better with each episode.

30:40Ben Meiselas:It's like, well, you were, the files, they show that you were on the island. Yeah. But you just said that you never saw him since 2005. I didn't say that. Okay. So you were there on the island. Yeah. Why? I brought my little children with me. You brought your children with you to Epstein's Island. Yeah. And I brought my friend's children's with me also. We like it. We like to bring our little kiddos to the island. You brought your kids to the island.

31:11Jordy Meiselas:Yeah.

31:13Ben Meiselas:Donald, are you hearing what the guy's saying? Yeah, of course. You know, he loves to bring his kids. Everyone wants to bring their kids to the island uh bondi are you gonna go and uh testify now uh nope i'm no longer the ag anymore i'm i'm done trump fired me you know that still means you have to testify comer you're gonna allow her not to testify uh well uh well actually we're gonna we're not gonna do a deposition anymore we don't do depositions anymore in the house in these houses of representatives but we we don't do depositions anymore. We do informal gatherings, no video informal. Yeah, but you did the deposition of Hillary Clinton.

31:51Ben Meiselas:Well, Hillary Clinton was all over the files. No, she wasn't. She was not in the files. She was never in the file. Biden, Joe Biden. I mean, these people are literally sociopaths. That was my end scene right there. When we come back, I want to talk about that and more. And we'll show you specifically as well what they're doing with Bondi right now. Like, all of this is taking place. What's going on in the domestic front is Donald Trump is killing our economy as a Bondi miss the Dow is 50 ,000. No, it's not. It's not 50 ,000. You know where the Dow, the Dow should not be a metric of anything, but if they just let Biden's economy roll on, I know they love the Dow and their stock market as a metric.

32:34Ben Meiselas:The Dow would be naturally like 70 ,000 right now, if they literally just did nothing and let Biden's economy roll. And they did it. And they've destroyed that.

32:44Jordy Meiselas:They've destroyed more. I still don't know why the Dow hitting 50 ,000 means suddenly you don't have to prosecute sexual predators and pedophiles. I didn't realize that was the threshold.

32:53Ben Meiselas:Why is she even saying that in the hearing? It was a logic games on the LSATs. I know the Trump regime is going after the American Bar Association and the standards for LSATs. But the logic game is if Dow 50 ,000, no sex trafficking investigations into the administration, A plus B equals C. We'll be right back after our first quick break. It's bad news.

33:16Jordy Meiselas:Biden's fault.

33:18Ben Meiselas:Therefore, it is Biden's fault. Exactly. We'll be right back after our first quick break. A reminder, make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel right here. Hit subscribe. Also, if you want to become a member of our YouTube channel, get access to the special podcast we do just for members, the one I do with Ron Filipkowski, access the emojis, click join. And if you're able to afford a membership, we know the economy is not great right now, but if you are able to and you want to gift memberships to others, you can give the gift of memberships right now by gifting memberships to others to have access to the member features.

33:53Ben Meiselas:That would be great if you can do it. obviously no pressure if you can't subscribe to the Midas touch on audio as well let's take our first quick break of the show we'll be right back after the first quick break

34:05Brett Meiselas:this episode is sponsored by BetterHelp May is mental health awareness month a reminder that whatever you're going through you don't have to go through it alone the current state of affairs in this country has been keeping me up at night to say the least mental health awareness month this May is an opportunity to check in with yourself and understand where you are right now If you've been feeling overwhelmed, stuck, anxious, or unsure, acknowledge that and know that those feelings are more common than you think, and we don't have to navigate them alone. BetterHelp therapists work according to a strict code of conduct and are fully licensed in the U.S.

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35:17Brett Meiselas:You don't have to be on this journey alone. Find support and have someone with you in therapy. Sign up and get 10 % off at betterhelp.com slash Midas. That's betterhelp.com slash Midas.

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37:20Brett Meiselas:Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description of both the YouTube and the audio. use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know he sent you. Shout out Wild Green, man. They've been a sponsor for a while now. Big fans of Wild Green. Definitely check them out. This is a deep cut, Benji, before I throw it back to you. Do you guys remember like that internet clip of the guy that goes around from time to time? He goes, murder? What murder? Anyway, it reminds me of Comer when he talks about depositions. Now he's, depositions? What depositions? I think that clip's from like 30 years ago.

37:49Brett Meiselas:But you know the clip I'm talking about. yeah yeah yeah it's a classic classic i watch it every time it comes up on my feed classic

37:57Ben Meiselas:ben do you know the clip yeah i know the clip i would they were they talking about john gaudy jr in the com in the community and they were saying what do you think about gaudy and he's been accused of murders and then the person i don't know what murder what murder was either that or the gambinos but you know something like this god it was the gaudy it was a big guy all right let's let's uh Let's jump in. I want to talk about a few things. I want to talk about the Bondi situation because I don't think what's getting attention about the Bondi situation is that Harmeet Dillon, who's one of the top people at the DOJ, she runs the civil rights division, but she's like the number three person at the DOJ as an assistant attorney general.

38:36Ben Meiselas:And she's one of the front runners. If Blanche doesn't become the attorney general, he's acting attorney general for her to become the attorney general. Lots of people think that she's kind of quietly in the position to actually be the next attorney general because Blanche couldn't make it through a confirmation hearing. So a lot of people are focusing on the fact that it's now been announced that she likely will be serving as Bondi's personal attorney at this May 29th deposition of Bondi coming up. What I think is not being paid enough attention to is what I just said was technically inaccurate, that it's actually not a deposition, even though she was subpoenaed for a deposition, because Comer has now said it's just going to be an informal, basically transcribed interview.

39:22Ben Meiselas:so you don't get sworn in under oath. And James Comey wants it not to be, James Comer, not Comey, we'll talk about Comey in a second. James Comer wants it not to be videotaped. So the MAGA Republicans, Trump, MAGA Mike Johnson, they've worked to say, Bondi does not have to testify in a deposition under oath and no video. Now, as the fact that Republicans have the majority in the House still, though a slim majority, the House oversight committee is run by the Republicans. So they have the ability to make the call, and Democrats can't overrule it, whether it's a deposition or a transcribed interview.

40:12Ben Meiselas:And Comer and Trump and Maga Mike have decided she will not testify under oath. So let me be clear. Pam Bondi will never be sitting for an under oath deposition so long as Republicans control the House. That's not happening. What she will be doing is a transcribed interview, not under oath. So there's no implication if she lies or doesn't answer questions because it's not a deposition. There's no oath administered. and they want to do it so it's not on video at all and you can't see her mannerisms. Now, when Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton said, look, we're open to do a deposition, but why don't we start with a transcribed interview?

40:55Ben Meiselas:Let's start with the interview because if you think we know more, then bring us back for a deposition. Why don't we start with a transcribed interview? James Comer, MAGA Republicans, MAGA Mike Trump, they said, Absolutely not. You don't get to actually get real authentic information unless it's a deposition under oath. So the standard and the precedent, and also frankly, common sense is that Pam Bondi, who's at the center of all of this, should have her deposition taken and it should be under oath and there should be a video. Frankly, it should be a hearing. It should be a hearing in front of the American people.

41:32Ben Meiselas:Damn it. They're covering up a child sex trafficking ring. What are we talking about here? And Trump, Comer, Maga Mike have all worked together with Bondi in order to ensure that she will never have a under oath deposition taken. Now that should be the headline. I'm okay with the headline also being, whoa, whoa, whoa. And you're telling me that Harmeet Dillon, who's a top DOJ official who used to run a private law practice, that she's now going to be serving as the personal attorney of Bondi, the former attorney general, and the new person who may become the attorney general? You're a private lawyer?

42:18Ben Meiselas:I thought you're the top person at the DOJ. Doesn't the DOJ have rules against that? They do, except the rules say depositions. This is now an informal gathering. So if it's an informal gathering, Trump and Comer and Maga Mike and the DOJ, we can do whatever we want. It's not a real deposition. Well, it should be a real deposition. What are we talking about? Of course it should be a real deposition. So to me, the bigger story here is I don't even know why this even goes forward, frankly, unless it's a video deposition. And I think that's where the people should be pissed about. So the Democrats sent a letter to James Comer saying exactly what I just laid out right there, that they're concerned that this isn't a deposition anymore, that it's a transcribed interview.

43:10Ben Meiselas:so it's not under oath that you have Harmeet Dillon, a DOJ top official, saying that she's now acting as a private lawyer, like a private citizen. No, you're the top. Choose your path. If you want to be the top private lawyer, a private lawyer, be a private lawyer. If you want to be a DOJ official, be a DOJ official. But are you going to do both? I mean, and think about the implications there. And the Democrats are saying this has to be videotape. What are we talking about? Now, the Republicans control the committee because they control the majority. So we just have to get out the word about what's happening.

43:48Ben Meiselas:And I don't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican. This should make you live it. By the way, do we have the clips? There's two clips I want to show you of Marjorie Taylor Greene. I did a whole video on this. Marjorie Taylor Greene was speaking in Texas at Ron Paul, Rand Paul's dad, Ron Paul's Institute, Republicans, Libertarians. And Marjorie Taylor Greene was invited as the keynote there. Big crowd. She got a standing ovation. And let me show you what Marjorie Taylor Greene was saying. And what I'm saying right now, yes, Trump has his MAGA cult. Trump's approval right now is what, 30 to 33 percent nationwide among independents and Democrats.

44:26Ben Meiselas:It's like beyond, you know, it's obviously Democrat. Trump's approval is like three percent. I don't know who the three percent of Democrats are who approve of Trump. I'm not sure they understand the question that's being as whenever I see that. I think it's just John Fetterman. He's a big guy. So more percentage points. I guess. But here's what Marjorie Talley Green said in no specific order. Let's play the first clip of Marjorie Talley Green. It doesn't matter what you do.

44:48Jordy Meiselas:So, wow. When we started talking about releasing the Epstein files, I'm like, this is a no brainer. President Trump will just roll them out on a big cart himself. Stacks and stacks and stacks of the Epstein files, because obviously Bill Clinton is all in there and Hillary Clinton. That's what I had been told all along, right? Well, it was the most shocking thing when I sat in a conference meeting and I learned that the president didn't want to release the Epsom files. I was like, what? Yeah, come to find out he was very much against it. So we kept on trying and kept on talking about it. And then the president told Mike Johnson, no, do not bring that resolution to the floor for a vote.

45:35Jordy Meiselas:He told the Rules Committee and Johnson told the Rules Committee, no, you will not mark up any bill in the Rules Committee that will allow the Epstein files to be released. And the resistance built and built and built. He told Pam Bondi, don't release the Epstein files. He told everybody, don't release the Epstein files. So we persisted because that's what we promised. That's what we campaigned on, transparency and accountability, especially to pedophiles. How is that complicated? So it got to be such a gigantic amount of resistance coming from the president and the speaker and everyone, the DOJ.

46:18Jordy Meiselas:I said, fine, I'll do the unthinkable. I'll go over there and I'll sign my name on a discharge petition that all the Democrats are signing their name on. Talk about crossing the aisle, me, a general in the MAGA army, crossing over to sign my name with a bunch of Democrats. Yeah, I did. Because women were raped when they were 16 and 14 years old. And he was a convicted pedophile, and we knew there were many with him. So I signed my name on the discharge petition. Oh, did I get my name on the naughty list then? Let me tell you, that became a real issue at the White House. She went on to say the following.

47:02Ben Meiselas:Let's play the other one.

47:03Jordy Meiselas:Because this crosses party lines. It crosses, as a matter of fact, it crosses all the lines. When it comes down to victimizing some of the most innocent people in America, these were young girls that were teenagers that desperately wanted to be models one day. They wanted to be seen as beautiful. They wanted to be rich. They wanted to be famous. And of course, every teenager wants things like that. And they were victimized by Ghislaine Maxwell and others. And they were victimized by the richest, most powerful men, not only in our country, but in the world. And they were used by Jeffrey Epstein as sexual tools for his own satisfaction and his friend's satisfaction.

47:49to actually be asked by the president of the United States to back off and not help these women.

47:57Jordy Meiselas:That's when MAGA died. That's when the entire thing shattered for me.

48:03Ben Meiselas:Right. And well, yeah, it was actually a very powerful speech. I played most of it in this video I did about that speech over the weekend. But when Donald Trump and James Comer and MAGA Mike Johnson, while Congress is in recess right now, while they're not working, right, they sent everybody home, while their focus right now is to ensure that Pam Bondi doesn't sit for an under oath deposition and that it's not on video, that that's actually their position. I'm not being hyperbolic. Like that's literally their position. as it relates to the DOJ's handling of a child sex trafficking ring, if you're Bondi or someone involved in that investigation, you should want to testify.

48:50Ben Meiselas:You should want to give speeches about it. You should want to do what Marjorie Taylor Greene's doing, going around the country, talking about how she's fighting for survivors, right? Like you should want to make that part of what you've done to give back, how you've used your public service to help. So it tells you everything you need to know that instead of wanting to talk about what they did to help the survivors, all they want to do is hide and cover up what they did to the survivors and how they've worked to protect the individuals who were the perpetrators in the Epstein files.

49:31Jordy Meiselas:And by the way, there was a moment that happened the other day where Todd Blanche was asked by the press, why are you ignoring these Epstein survivors? Why don't you do something? They're trying to get in touch with you. And he made some sort of holier than thou statement. Well, if they want to get in touch with me, they should come and knock on the door of the Department of Justice. So show your cards, basically. Come down. And so you know what happened? Some of the survivors did actually go to the Department of Justice. Guess who wasn't there? Guess who did not open the door for them? Todd Blanch or any of the officials in the Department of Justice.

50:06Jordy Meiselas:So they try to play this game on TV. Look, we're being transparent. Look, we're interviewing her. Look, we're doing this. We're doing that. We're doing everything for this case. Look, we released millions of documents, millions and millions of documents. But it's all actually in furtherance of the cover up. It's all to try to hide the ball of what's really happening, like one of these kind of Trump magic tricks. But now he's brought in his personal criminal attorney, Todd Blanche, into these positions. He's brought in all these other implicated people, other people who were involved with Jeffrey Epstein into his cabinet, surrounded himself essentially with Epstein associates in this cabinet, and has really turned this into the Epstein administration.

50:45Jordy Meiselas:The major red line, and this should say everything to you, that the major red line for Donald Trump in kind of rebuking Marjorie Taylor Greene. And so many people who actually believed in Donald Trump who were in this MAGA movement was their demands to release the Epstein files, something that he really promoted throughout his campaign as something that he was going to do and something that he used to smear so many people. And how many times have we seen MAGA throughout the years release these phony lists, right? They show like a Microsoft Word document that like some MAGA random person made up.

51:23Jordy Meiselas:And it's like, oh, look, look who's on the list. Jimmy Kimmel and Tom Hanks and Alec Baldwin. They just put like people they don't like on the list. It's a fake list. But then we actually see who is really involved. And suddenly they put their blinders on. Oh, no, it can't be Donald. The whole thing, it's so reprehensible. It's just so depraved to see these people in the lengths that they're going to in order to cover up something so heinous. But we're seeing, you know, more developments nevertheless, like with the investigation that's happening right now of the Zora Ranch in New Mexico with the attorney general in New Mexico investigating that.

51:59Jordy Meiselas:There were some survivors from the Zora Ranch coming forward now saying a lot of the stuff that was going on at the Zora Ranch. That's something that the Department of Justice did not even touch. They didn't want to look at what was going on in the Zora Ranch. And so little by little, you know, we are learning more and more and more. But, you know, as frustrated as I am, that we still don't have all the answers, and we're far from getting them. I try to ground myself in thinking about how these survivors feel, you know, going on right now. I don't know, decades and decades and decades of trying to get to the truth, trying to hold people responsible, trying to get some accountability and being blocked every step of the way.

52:39Brett Meiselas:Exactly. For me, it's just like the simplest articulation of all of this is like, there's nothing political about the release of the Epstein files. There's that, like, there should not be anything political about that. It doesn't matter if you're a Democrat. It doesn't matter if you're a Republican, if you're red or blue or purple or orange. It shouldn't matter, right? This is about, Brett, like you said, accountability and justice for their survivors. This is an issue here that all Americans, that all people, that anyone with a heart and soul should want to get behind. You should want justice for the survivors, hands down.

53:15Brett Meiselas:I don't care who you vote for. And so to see this weaponized in such a bizarre way by Donald Trump, to me, is very telling, and by MAGA, is very telling of where their cards are on this issue. And it's despicable. And it should leave not just a sour taste in everyone's mouth, it should leave, I don't even eat more sour than sour taste in everyone's mouth. I don't even know. It's so reprehensible what we're seeing from this level of government, from this quote unquote leadership here, that they're just kneeling the football on this. That's actually what I'm witnessing personally is what they're doing here is they're trying to run out the clock on this issue.

53:56Brett Meiselas:This isn't like a bill about the economy or a bill about should we raise taxes by X, Y, Z. No, these are human beings. These are human beings that have gone through what most people can never even fathom. We should all want justice for the survivors. This isn't an issue that just goes away that people are going to get bored about. No, more and more people as the day goes by are pressing Trump and the regime to release the Epstein files. Let's get to the bottom of this. This isn't a Democrat Republican thing. This is a humanity thing.

54:29Ben Meiselas:And I think we could all get on Iran, on Trump's unlawful and catastrophic war, and the quagmire there, actually based on what you say there, Jordy, I'll take that thread and expand upon it, there's links with how he's handling the Epstein files. I mean, both in terms of lots of people, and I'm in this camp included, believe one of the reasons that Trump started this unlawful and catastrophic war in the first place was to cover up the Epstein files and to cover up the fact that we were learning a lot, and it was part of a distraction effort, but both in terms of this is what Trump does here and throughout his life.

55:12Ben Meiselas:He tries to run out the clock on things, and he thinks people will just ignore it, and it'll go away, and you just pretend it doesn't happen. And with both the catastrophic war in Iran and the Epstein files for different reasons, they're not going away, right? People are like, hey, you know, yeah, you may have, you know, when it came to like Melania's immigration status and you were like two weeks, two weeks, we'll give you a press conference. Maybe people forgot about that in 26 or sadly, the healthcare plan, people need to remember that we keep trying to remind people, you know, you know, you know, he gets, he can come up with scams to, you know, he brings in drug manufacturers and they say, oh, look, we brought down the price of the drug, total BS.

55:57Ben Meiselas:but he drags that out. We keep calling it. I know the American people aren't buying that one, but with Epstein, he can't get rid of it. All of his tricks and getting rid of it. And when it comes to the catastrophic war in Iran, all of the lies, the fake negotiations, the fake posturing, he can't get rid of it. And he's stuck. He doesn't know what to do. And I think it's important that we look at these things very carefully because it shows how he came to power because it actually is a unique ability. We have to analyze it. He's able to lie with every word, syllable, sound, and it's relentless.

56:38Ben Meiselas:And he can find people around him who bend reality and they flood the zone and they flood and they don't stop. So when you're on the receiving end of it, sometimes you're like, I don't want to deal with this. Like, how do I, okay, sure. You're right, Donald. And you just, and it just makes people give up. It is at a proportion of flooding the zone with lies that frankly, we never, people really never seen, and it's relentless and it's every day and it's 2 AM and it's 5 AM and it's you know, and it's, and it's maniacal. It's crazy. I mean, the things that are made up are ridiculous. Then he has, you know, people go after you.

57:18Ben Meiselas:And before you know it, you're like, what the hell am I even trapped? And let me just get out of this world. That's the super, I don't want to call it a superpower in like a positive sense, but it's not the truth, the reality. It is flooding it with so many lies. But in these instances, it's stuck. There's a quagmire and it's not working, but you see all of the things. And the things that he's doing are so mind-bogglingly outrageous. Like, what are you saying? What are you doing? That can't be real. You're saying whatever. But the public has stepped up when it's come to releasing the Epstein files.

57:57Ben Meiselas:And Iran has responded by countering Donald Trump with their own kind of social media outrageousness and flamboyance and the constant posting back. And that combined with the rapid fire response and always reacting and always responding and always letting it up. It's uniquely he's captured and he's flailing. And ultimately when you remove the facade, you see how utterly weak, how utterly pathetic it is. And it is lonely and it is pathetic and it is dark and it is sick, but it is weak. It is really, really weak. And that's the thing. It's always been that way. And that's why society always needs to stand up to bullies.

58:48Ben Meiselas:You always need to push back right away because when you embolden it, they just continue and they won't stop until you assert yourself. That's what you got to do. All right. Last quick break of the show. When we come back, I want to share with you some, you know, Donald Trump blaming Biden for the Spirit Airlines bankruptcy. I want to show you some things that I think are not getting that much attention. What went down in some recent hearings as these Trump picks for judge for judgeships, lifetime appointments, how they were responding with some questions. Midas did videos on that. I know people are hearing a lot about it now, but Midas has been reporting about it all weekend.

59:26Ben Meiselas:And now, fortunately, that's become kind of top of the news, I think, as a result of our reporting. We'll talk about that and more. Oh, and we'll talk about attorney acting AG Todd Blanche basically destroying the Comey case with this horrific interview he did with Meet the Press. And I want to show you what Jeanine Pirro said as well. I think it tells you a lot about what the Trump strategy is. All right. Last quick break of the show. Hit subscribe. Help us get to 7 million subscribers and help us increase our audio subscribers as well. Subscribe to the Midas Touch on Audio. All right. We'll be right back after a quick break.

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1:02:52Brett Meiselas:let's go shout out to our sponsors links in description both the youtube and the audio use the links use the codes if there's an exit survey let them know we sent you ben before i toss it back over to you for the audio listener specifically right now and if you're watching live on youtube you could do this too but if you have made it this far into the episode please it takes two seconds our audio listeners leave a five star review and a comment let us know what you liked about this episode let us know what you like about the episodes in general it's all very helpful for the algorithm, whichever podcast app you use.

1:03:19Brett Meiselas:It literally takes five seconds. Super helpful to the show. That's all I got.

1:03:23Jordy Meiselas:Let me just say this. You should be speaking to everybody when you speak to the audio listeners, because I'm sure everybody who's watching here on YouTube is also an audio listener, right? I don't want to make assumptions.

1:03:32Brett Meiselas:You know what they say about people who make assumptions, Brett? I don't make assumptions.

1:03:35Jordy Meiselas:You see what I'm saying? If you're not, go ahead and add the Midas Touch podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and go be an audio listener and be included in the people who Jordi is speaking to.

1:03:44Ben Meiselas:Speaking about people making an ass of themselves. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche was on the weekend shows. He was on Meet the Press and he was asked about the frivolous criminal prosecution of James Comey, former FBI director for posting a video for posting a photograph of seashells. It said 8647 about a year ago. And so he Blanche was asked a pretty basic question, which is, you know, a lot of people sell merch that says 8647 on Amazon and people use that phrase. It means to get rid of in terms of it's an expression that's used in the restaurant industry. Get rid of either getting rid of an order or getting rid of a person from the bar if they're unruly.

1:04:27Ben Meiselas:So what about people who use the term like 8647? There were lots of people when Biden was in office who would sell merch 8646. And we saw a lot of close influencers of Trump say 86, you know, using that expression, 8646. So are you, is this, is this like a, is this like a social media crime now? If anybody says 8647, like the DOJ prosecutes you for attempted assassination, like what are you, what are you, what are you doing there? Watch the entire criminal case against Comey crumble in under a minute and 30 seconds.

1:05:00Jordy Meiselas:Well, the image, excuse me, is part of what led to this indictment. It is worth noting that on amazon.com, we look this up there are dozens of products with the same terminology we're showing it right here 8647 being sold and purchased right now should individuals selling or buying 8647 merchandise

1:05:21Brett Meiselas:be concerned that they're going to be prosecuted by the do this is this isn't about a single

1:05:26Ben Meiselas:incident okay this isn't i mean of course not that's posted constantly that phrase is used constantly there are constantly men and women who choose to make threatening statements against President Trump, every one of those statements do not result in indictments, of course. There are facts, there are circumstances, there are investigations that have to take place, and we have charged dozens and dozens of men and women this year with threatening President Trump and others. So this isn't a new charge we're bringing.

1:05:52Jordy Meiselas:Just to be very clear, you are suggesting the seashells themselves are not at the root of this indictment.

1:05:58Ben Meiselas:No, I am suggesting that every single case depends on the investigation that's done. And of course, the seashells are part of that case. I mean, that's what the public sees. But of course, the seashells are part of the case. Sally sold seashells by the seashore, the seashells, everybody. Do you guys remember when Merrick Garland would go on all of the new shows and he'd go on MSNOW and he'd go on Fox and he'd go on all the weekend shows and talk about active prosecutions? You remember Merrick Garland doing that? What about Eric Holder? You remember when Holder would just do a press tour and go on all of the shows?

1:06:37Ben Meiselas:You remember when the prosecutors, like the federal prosecutor who leads Washington, D.C.'s United States Attorney's Office, remember always would go on and do the shows and do a media tour basically. No, you didn't because that didn't happen. That's not what you do. Why are you? There's a lot to say there. I'm glad he made such a ridiculous statement that completely undermines the case. And on that basis alone, and many others, the case will be dismissed. We all knew it was a frivolous complaint. But why are you doing these interviews? That already reflects poorly on the credibility. You should speak through your motions in the case.

1:07:18Ben Meiselas:And then, going back to the last segment, you all see how this all ties in together. When it comes to Attorney General Pam Bondi and all these people, they do these shows, They spout this and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then it's like, okay, let's go under oath, right? No, no, I don't want to be under oath. Why? You've been talking about it. You've been talking a lot of shit to all these places. Go under oath. Let's talk about it in a setting where rules of evidence apply, where judges are supposed to enforce the law. Why don't we talk about it? No, no, no.

1:07:54Jordy Meiselas:I'm going to wrap around to one other point that we were making too and say now, remember when Howard Lutnick was on these podcasts and he would say, we got 1000 gold cards sold, 1000 sold. We are making billions. We're going to make a trillion dollars on the gold, the Trump gold card for immigration. Then he gets put actually under oath and they say, Mr. Lutnick, how many of those Trump gold cards were actually sold? You said you sold at least 1 ,000. This was last year. You said that on the All In podcast. So what are the numbers today? One.

1:08:33Ben Meiselas:But even to get there, he goes, well, look, it's a very robust and methodical process that we have to go through. And the – Sorry. And it was like some absurd pricing. They choked themselves out doing the – he's out.

1:08:50Brett Meiselas:It was like to review the application was like 100x what it used to be or whatever the number was.

1:08:55Jordy Meiselas:I think Ben is actually, Ben's about to pass out. Ben, it's not easy to be Howard Lutnick. It's a workhouse interview with Howard Lutnick. It's not as easy to speak like you smoke five packs of cigarettes a day. I don't know if he does.

1:09:09Ben Meiselas:My face is so red. It looks like my face is a boiling crab. All right, let's go. Let's go. So obviously, look, you know, he admits there it's a common expression used all of the time. Motion to dismiss. See you later. We knew that before he said that. But, you know, Jeanine Pirro. Everyone says that phrase. Everyone says 86 - Hello, who's calling? 86-47 is calling. Who? What? That's this expression everybody uses according to Don Blanche. That's what everybody's, everybody. You know, it's the most common phrase. All the cool kids in school. are basically you know everyone was that what was the good the kids used to say six seven

1:09:52Brett Meiselas:they actually were 86 used to say by the way i've not seen like this has had such a streisand effect

1:10:01Jordy Meiselas:because i've not seen more people use 86 47 than right now like everyone keeps posting images i see it in the chat right now as we're saying this people are writing it

1:10:13Ben Meiselas:But, you know, it's a ridiculous it's a ridiculous thing. And I think it's important, as we always say in all these episodes, when we talk about the alleged incident at the White House Correspondents Dinner, whatever it is, we always say we condemn political violence in all of its in all of its forms. At the same time, when I see you all, these, you know, Trump, they were laughing after the White House Correspondents' Dinner, and they're like smiling, and they're like, I guess we got to build the ballroom now. Well, when you handle things like that, then I'm going to comment on the way you're dealing with something like that, and I'm going to point it out.

1:10:51Ben Meiselas:I'm not going to be silenced. I'm going to point out your behavior, right? And when you have Todd Blanch saying, everybody uses the term, everybody uses them, I'm going to call out and be like, okay, so you're saying everybody uses the term. What are we talking about here?

1:11:03Jordy Meiselas:You can't get mad at people when their mind starts going into conspiracies and is this real? Did this really happen? When you're dealing with a Trump regime that lies about everything, it makes any word out of your mouth, even if it is 100 % true, it makes you think, well, let's verify that this actually happened first. That's the kind of conditioning that the Trump regime has put on the American people because they lie about everything out there. I just think the contrast, Ben, you were bringing it up before, is so interesting when you think about Garland. You think about people like Jack Smith and how methodical they were and how careful they were to ensure they weren't politicizing everything.

1:11:44Jordy Meiselas:And it was something that we would say on the show, which is something you said before, which is when Jack Smith wouldn't speak in public. We use the same damn picture of Jack Smith in all of our videos because he never saw the guy. You saw him once when he was going to get a Subway sandwich during lunch and the photographers found him. Aside from that, you never saw the guy. You saw the same picture of him in the purple robe from The Hague. And we would say, well, Jack Smith is a guy. And, you know, seasoned prosecutors would say he speaks through his filings. You will see what the evidence is.

1:12:15Jordy Meiselas:You will see what the accusations are. When you see the actual documentation, he will put it in there with evidence. He will back it up. That's how Jack Smith speaks. And you had a guy like Garland, who, of course, was, you know, similar, you know, probably to a fault in the way that he handled things. But while they were doing that, you still had the Trump people because they live in this alternate reality where all they do is blame, blame, blame, blame, blame. They never take any personal responsibility. They were accusing Merrick Garland and Jack Smith as being the most political figures imaginable that these people had so politicized the justice system that all these charges were unfair because they just wanted to get Trump.

1:12:57Jordy Meiselas:And it could not be further from the truth. And it is just another example of the psychological projection where everything that is their fault, everything that they do, they try to say, no, it's Biden's fault. No, it's this person's fault. It's that person's fault. It can't be me. It can't be Donald Trump. It's got to be them. Right.

1:13:15Brett Meiselas:So Janine Pirro, the year is going to be like 2045 and they're still going to be blaming Biden for things like that. It's just it's their crutch. They can't go a full sentence without tossing the blame back on Biden, no matter how far and further away we get from his presidency. It's bizarre.

1:13:30Ben Meiselas:It's bizarre. And I'll just jump off that, then I'll show Janine Pirro in a second. Spirit Airlines declares bankruptcy this weekend. Spirit Airlines puts out a statement, it's because the high jet fuel prices that were unexpected as a result of this catastrophic war. Spirit Airlines says it's the jet fuel prices, that's why. We're aware that they did two bankruptcies and tried restructuring and that they were struggling. Now they're shut down, shut down, not opening up. 7 ,500 employees lost their job. There were 17 ,000 in total who lost their job. But then immediately, I mean, immediately after Spirit announces that they're going bankrupt, what does the Trump regime do?

1:14:07Ben Meiselas:Oh, it was Biden's fault. Back in 2022, that's what they go back to. In 2022, there was going to be a merger between Spirit Airlines and JetBlue, and the Biden administration blocked the merger, and that's what did it. They don't say the part that in 2024, it was a Reagan-appointed judge who presided over the case and issued a hundred plus page ruling that said that the merger violated antitrust laws. And the Trump regime also doesn't say that JetBlue right now is like eight to nine billion dollars in debt and hasn't made a profit in a very, very, very long time. And that what likely would have happened if you combined the if you combine spirit with JetBlue and the contagion of the higher, it's not like, it's easy contagion to identify, which is the high jet prices.

1:14:56Ben Meiselas:If you put both of them together and saddle JetBlue with additional debt and additional crises from Spirit, you likely now would have had both entities going bankrupt. And I'd pay very close attention right now to JetBlue because its founder said they're in real risk of potential bankruptcy. The current leadership was a little bit different than the founder says, oh, we don't expect bankruptcy in 2026. But as jet fuel prices continue to go up, I would pay attention to that and other budget airlines and what's going on there. Also, Donald Trump was the one who claimed that he created a golden age and everybody's doing good.

1:15:34Ben Meiselas:And he was going to fix the, you know, Trump took over a portion of Intel. Trump was the one who ultimately let spirit go bankrupt. And that was apparently done in coordination with other airline CEOs, from what I've heard. And, you know, and that was a Trump thing. This was a Trump bankruptcy. Jordy, as you said, Biden's been gone for a long time. You can't say we're in a golden age. Things are amazing. Everyone's great. $21 trillion have been brought in. This is the golden age. And then a bankruptcy happens. Biden's 2022 antitrust.

1:16:07Brett Meiselas:And Ben, yeah, I think these are the same people. These are the same people that are bombing Iran saying that we've completely obliterated all of their missiles, all their defenses, and yet we still have to invade because they're still building this incredible arsenal. I mean, they are the party of doublespeak. MAGA is the party of doublespeak. They don't actually have a North Star. They just lie.

1:16:26Jordy Meiselas:I think this is why you got to watch what they do during these situations, right? Because an American company like Spirit going out of business during the Trump administration, specifically stating that the reason is because of Donald Trump and the increased fuel prices due to his war. That's like as bad of news as you get. And so seeing that machine kick into gear to immediately go, this is Elizabeth Warren's fault. This is Joe Biden's fault. And they just pump that out, right? You turn on Fox News, that's what they're saying. You open up the New York Post, that's what they're saying. You go on Twitter, that's what the MAGA influencers are saying.

1:17:00Jordy Meiselas:And you look at truth social, that's what Donald Trump is saying. So they pump out this garbage. They flood the zone with this fire hose of BS. And so it's up to you to push back. Like, first off, Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden do not have unilateral control over these sorts of things. They did file a lawsuit because it was obviously going to be bad for consumers. And a Reagan appointed judge agreed with them on that. And that has no bearing whatsoever to the high fuel prices, which are the actual stated reason by the company today as to why they went down to business. But that's a nice red herring that they're throwing out there, right?

1:17:38Jordy Meiselas:That's a good diversion. And these MAGAs with their propaganda machines, with their propaganda arms, they are actually masters of diversion. It's kind of like a magic trick, right? How do we get people to not care? How do we get people to not be upset that we just destroyed a major company and that all these people are out of work. Well, you go back to the authoritarian playbook, which has worked throughout the decades, which was used in the 1930s, which you could put at any of these regimes. They scapegoat it. They try to direct the anger. Oh, you're downtrodden. You lost your job. Things are crappy.

1:18:12Jordy Meiselas:You're paying high price for gas. Well, guess what? It's that guy did it. That guy did it. It wasn't me. So let's all gang up on these people to direct people's rage at a different source. It's the same playbook that's existed for a long time, but it's kind of on steroids now due to the internet and due to these algorithms where they just push it out like crazy.

1:18:31Brett Meiselas:The reality is catching up to them. Just quick anecdote here. I can't tell you how many conversations I had over this past weekend alone, just about the high oil prices and gas prices from friends and neighbors in the community. I mean, it probably came up like six or seven times, like totally unprompted, by the way, I'm just like, hey, I paid$115. And then someone else at the park was like, I paid$130. And it became like a whole conversation I got into just at the park alone with my son, just trying to take the day off of everything and people not knowing necessarily what I do here at the network.

1:19:01Brett Meiselas:And so it's hitting people where it hurts. And it's in their wallets. And it's no wonder why Trump's approval rating, well, disapproval rating, I should say, is actually one of the highest in American history is disapproval rating. It's unbelievable because these prices, again, it hits people where it hurts. It's their money.

1:19:18Ben Meiselas:Look, leadership is difficult. Actually, solving problems is hard. Blaming people is easy. And so having to both solve problems and rebut disinformation actually is more challenging than lying about everything. I mean, it'd be easy if I just got up here every day and just made up a bunch of things. I mean, when Donald Trump wakes up, he makes up fake conversations that he has and he gets the outcome that he wants because heads he wins, tails you lose in his fake conversations, in his fake deals and things are happening that aren't happening. And he just makes it up and you're like, well, how can you do that?

1:19:58Ben Meiselas:And it's hard for normal language to rebut that craziness other than to basically have to holistically call it out and say, you know, this dude is psychotic. Like, like, you don't believe any word he's saying, like, this guy is a weak and pathetic loser. You have to approach it with that kind of mindset, because otherwise, almost quibbling with the made up stuff on it, you get kind of lost in the morass of this literally made up world that he this fiction where these conversations aren't, you know, aren't even happening. And you're grasping to try to find strands of truth or messages in, frankly, a deranged universe.

1:20:38Ben Meiselas:I just want to show you two other quick things. Janine Pirro, she goes on the morning shows and she basically defends that she'll continue to go after Jerome Powell, who's about to be the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, who's going to stay on as a board of governor. because the DOJ, she says, she's criticizing the judge for quashing her investigation, her criminal investigation into Jerome Powell. She goes, we're allowed to investigate based on rumors and based on what we read, what we just read out there. We could start investigations on anyone based on rumors. Listen to what she says the DOJ standard is to impanel grand juries.

1:21:17Ben Meiselas:Just listen to her in any words. Here, play this clip. evidence when the United States Supreme Court has said, I can present evidence based upon or

1:21:23Jordy Meiselas:open an investigation, suspicion and rumors. I can start an investigation based on that. A judge has stopped me from doing that. And therefore, the only way to get evidence, the only way to find out what happened is through the inspector general. And I spoke to Michael Horowitz and I said, I would like this in short order. You have the ability to talk to witnesses. I have been foreclosed from doing that. And we continue to litigate the issue.

1:21:48Ben Meiselas:So she says her standard is rumors, that she says the Supreme Court has told her that she can launch investigations on people based on rumors. That's not the standard that the DOJ ever applied. We're going to criminally investigate people based on rumors. So Donald Trump makes a deranged rumor. He makes a post about somebody, right? Or he'll have, you know, Bill Pulte or one of his deranged top officials that he's put in there make up a rumor about whoever it is. Then they'll say, OK, criminal investigation and panel a grand jury. Then they'll start subpoenaing your records and they'll issue warrants and they'll do all of these things.

1:22:26Ben Meiselas:And then they'll try to build a case against you. Like that's literally what, you know, what she said.

1:22:30Jordy Meiselas:And by the way, it should not be lost on you that the individual who's saying that is also a former Fox News host who was somebody who trafficked in these exact sort of rumors on the air. and that the people who we know Donald Trump is in touch with when it comes to all these issues and wants to spread these rumors are people like Sean Hannity and other Fox hosts who they use to bring this messaging to people via an unofficial source. That's why we call Fox state regime media because they're there to launder the talking points of the White House, in my opinion. And we've seen this coordination already outlined between people like Donald Trump and Sean Hannity, the way they talk to each other, the way around January 6th, Sean Hannity was essentially acting as a public relations crisis firm for Donald Trump, coaching him on what to say, trying to tell his audience what to believe, what to think, trying to get Trump back into the good graces of the American people.

1:23:24Jordy Meiselas:So this is a sophisticated operation that exists. And right there, Jeanine Pirro is basically reserving her right to, based on all of this made up stuff to launch investigations, which she just so happens to be a part of this web, this rumor mill that exists on the right.

1:23:40Ben Meiselas:So what do you do when judges say, no, you can't do that? Those aren't the rules. What are you talking about? I'm not going to allow that to happen. Well, Donald Trump does one of two things. One, he becomes both the plaintiff and the defendant in a lawsuit. Back in January, he sues the Treasury Department and the IRS for$10 million and then tries to enter into a settlement agreement with himself. He asks a federal judge in the Southern District of Florida, Judge Williams, to bless these settlement discussions. And she's like, whoa, I don't have jurisdiction over this. I can't have a case where you're the plaintiff and the defendant and you want me to basically bless a collusive, apparently, what it looks like it could be a fraudulent settlement agreement.

1:24:20Ben Meiselas:I'm not going to go and bless this unless I have jurisdiction. So explain why you're adverse and why this isn't just some phony case. I'm going to step up and step up and assert my role as a judge to say I might not have jurisdiction. Give me your arguments why this is a real case. to begin with. You've already said, Donald Trump, you've already won the case before it's even been fought because you're both sides of the case. So that's one of the tools of an authoritarian. The other is appoint judges who are authoritarian enablers, who are bootlickers, right? So that's why it's also important that they bring judges who just deny basic facts, who deny that there's amendments that prevent Donald Trump from serving a third term, bring in judges who refuse to say that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.

1:25:04Ben Meiselas:Bring in judges who refused to say that January 6th was an attack on the Capitol. Bring in judges who refused to say that there are restraints on a president's ability to go to war without Congress. That's why it was really important that I brought everybody and brought attention to these hearings that weren't getting enough attention. So I'll give you an example. Over last week, you had a hearing with all these federal judges who Trump wants to appoint in various districts. And questions were asked like this by Democratic Senator Coons. And he's asking these Trump picks about whether Donald Trump could run for a third term.

1:25:41Ben Meiselas:Let's play this first clip.

1:25:42Jordy Meiselas:Mr. Mark, if I might, just tell me about the 22nd Amendment. What does it provide?

1:25:49The 22nd Amendment, Senator, my career has mostly been in criminal

1:25:55Jordy Meiselas:prosecution, I haven't had an opportunity to use that one specifically. Anyone able to help on the 22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution?

1:26:07Jordy Meiselas:I believe it is the amendment that deals with a two-term limitation. Correct. It states no person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice. Mr. Mark, is President Trump eligible to run for president again in 2028?

1:26:25Jordy Meiselas:Senator, without considering all the facts and looking at everything, depending on what the situation is, this to me strikes as more of a hypothetical of something that could be... It's not a hypothetical. Has President Trump been elected president twice? President Trump has been certified the president of the United States two times. Is he eligible to run for a third term under our Constitution? I would have to review the actual order of it. All I need to tell you is the language of the constitutional amendment that makes it clear that no, he is not eligible to run for a third term. Anybody else brave enough to say that the Constitution of the United States prevents President Trump from seeking a third term?

1:27:03Jordy Meiselas:Anybody willing to apply the Constitution by its plain language in the 22nd Amendment? Nobody. I'll represent that the Democratic senators then asked who won the 2020 election, and they all said, well, Biden was certified.

1:27:19Ben Meiselas:Well, who won? Biden was certified. So you refused to say who actually won the election? Well, we could only say who's certified. And then when they ask these people who are going to be appointed as lifetime federal judges, was January 6th an attack on the Capitol? We can't answer that question. There may be a case in controversy before. You can't answer that January 6th was an attack on the Capitol. We can't say, all we can say is that could be an issue that could come before us. We're not going to be able to discuss what the events were.

1:27:49Jordy Meiselas:They try to go, I can't answer political questions. I can't answer politically charged questions. And the things that the Democrats kept responding is, this isn't a political question. This is a matter of fact. And if you can't answer a question of basic fact, like who won the 2020 election? Did Joe Biden win? If you can't answer that in a yes or no question, that's not a political question, then how are you as a judge going to judge the basic facts of a case or the complex facts of a case? And to me, that should be an immediate disqualifier. But it's showing how Donald Trump is filling the benches, is packing the various courts around the country with these completely unqualified people who are simply political operatives who are being selected from the Project 2025 crew, the Heritage Foundation crew, in order to fill these seats so that they can make political rulings, not based on fact, but based on, ironically, because they act like, oh, we can't go with that because it's political.

1:28:46Jordy Meiselas:They're making all their decisions purely based on political means in order to do whatever they can to advance the right-wing MAGA agenda.

1:28:55Ben Meiselas:That's all I got today. We've covered a lot of topics. I'm sure we'll be going live with more breaking news also after this. We're going to keep on keeping on with all of our coverage, giving you the real information as always. Make sure you hit subscribe right now. Let's get us to 7 million subscribers. become a member gift memberships as well. If you're able to afford a membership and you want to give others the gift of a membership, you can do like 50 memberships, a hundred memberships to people, 25 memberships to people, whatever you can do gift as many memberships as you can. If you can, don't worry if you can't, of course, we know times are tough, but if you can help out other people get memberships, I'd love for them to have access to some of those exclusive podcasts that we do and the emojis, of course.

1:29:40Ben Meiselas:And make sure you subscribe on Midas Touch Audio. Whatever you listen to audio podcast, search Midas Touch, leave a five-star review. That helps us. Even if you don't plan on listening to audio, you should. You never know when you're going to want to listen to us on audio, but just subscribe there. It helps us a lot. It helps the show a lot. So if you can, subscribe on audio and leave a five-star review, even if you plan to just watch on YouTube. So thanks, everybody, from the bottom of our heart. We're listening to you. We hear you. We're going to keep on fighting for you day in, day out here on the Midas Touch Network.

1:30:09Ben Meiselas:Thanks for listening to the Midas Touch Podcast, and thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Jordy, shout out to the Midas Mighty.

1:30:15Jordy Meiselas:The Midas Mighty is standing strong.

1:30:24Jordy Meiselas:Against the fascists, we sing our song. We will get it right whenever.

1:30:33Brett 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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1:31:49Ben Meiselas:Mecham Auctions, the world's largest collector car auction company, returns to Indianapolis for Dana Mecham's 39th original spring classic, May 8th to the 16th at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

1:32:01Jordy Meiselas:Join us for the fun, fast-paced, high-energy Mecham experience with 3 ,000 vehicles up for grabs. For avid collectors, first-time buyers, and enthusiasts of all ages, there's something for everyone. Register a bid and buy spectator tickets now at Mecham.com.

1:32:19Ben Meiselas:Mecham Auctions, the world's largest collector car auction company, returns to Indianapolis for Dana Mecham's 39th original spring classic,

1:32:27Jordy Meiselas:May 8th to the 16th at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Join us for the fun, fast-paced, high-energy Mecham experience with 3 ,000 vehicles up for grabs. For avid collectors, first-time buyers, and enthusiasts of all ages, there's something for everyone. Register to bid and buy spectator tickets now at Mecham.com. We have the tech to get food delivered in 15 minutes, but we all have horror stories about buying tickets. The GameTime app gives fans the advantage. Get amazing tickets in just a few taps. Fees are included, so what you see is what you pay. And the GameTime guarantee means authentic tickets at the best price every time.

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From the publisher

On this episode of the MeidasTouch Podcast, Ben, Brett, and Jordy break down the rapidly escalating chaos in the Middle East after Donald Trump’s latest Strait of Hormuz announcement backfires spectacularly, with Iran firing on U.S. ships, striking a key UAE port, and pushing the region to the brink of full-blown war again—while Trump’s allies flood the airwaves with “Baghdad Bob”-style spin insisting everything is under control. Back at home, a federal judge steps in to block yet another controversial Trump demolition project in Washington, D.C., as new reporting exposes troubling coordination between the DOJ and former Attorney General Pam Bondi tied to the Epstein files cover-up. The episode also dives into Marjorie Taylor Greene recent speech rebuking Trump, unpacks the real story behind the Spirit Airlines collapse amid soaring fuel costs, and more.

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