MeidasTouch Makes Major Announcement!

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3:30Ben Meiselas:Welcome to this special edition of the Midas Touch podcast. We are excited to make a major announcement here live with everybody as the Midas Touch network continues to expand, continues to grow, continues to support the development of lots of people who are moving into this space of YouTube, new media, the way news is consumed in 2026. It is with a great honor to introduce the newest addition to the Midas Touch Network and also someone who the Midas Touch Network will be working with and partnering with to build a media network, YouTube channel, Substack, and everything that comes along with it.

4:22Ben Meiselas:Everybody welcome Scott McFarlane. You all know him, a legendary reporter, now the Midas Touch Network's chief Washington correspondent. And in addition to being the Midas Touch Network's chief Washington correspondent Scott McFarlane will also be launching his platform, Scott McFarlane Reports. You can subscribe to Scott McFarlane Reports on his YouTube channel at Scott McFarlane News, and then also a sub stack where you can search for Scott McFarlane and subscribe to his sub stack as well. Let's bring on Scott McFarlane to talk about this incredible announcement and to also talk about the types of things we'll be doing together.

5:14Ben Meiselas:And then let's talk about building Scott's platform. And then let's get into some of the news with this war in Iran, Donald Trump here on the homeland, attacking Robert Mueller posthumously. Then you have Treasury Secretary Scott Besant saying, look, it was Mueller who raided Mar-a-Lago. And then also just that reckless, reckless, malicious appearance by Scott Besant, the disinformation flooding the zone with this Trump regime. And frankly, why growing platforms like this, why you joining the Midas Touch Network and why you launching your own platform as well is so important. So Scott, let me hand it over to you to just to talk about this announcement.

6:01Hey, Ben, it's never been more important to be a reporter than it is now. Let's just reflect on the significance of this moment. You have this distinctive, if not historic, moment of political toxicity, political violent threats, a challenge to the separation of powers, challenges to democracy. It's never been more important to be an enterprise investigating reporter. And it's exciting to have this platform. People who watch, who listen, who I know care about these things, It's in their DNA. It's in their bones. They care about the future of this country and the future of democracy. And we have now this limitless platform and this limitless opportunity, Ben, for unfiltered, unadulterated reporting, independent reporting where everybody has some skin in the game.

6:50Ben Meiselas:So talk to us about this kind of dual role. And this is the kind of way I think the Midas Touch Network is going to expand. Because on the one hand, you're going to be the chief DC correspondent for the Midas Touch Network, which I think is going to play a vital role to our nearly 7 million subscribers on YouTube. We're one of the biggest sub stacks out there. You have incredible sources in Washington, DC and throughout the country. And so bringing that information to our sub stack, to our YouTube, to our platform is going to be massive. But when we use the word our, it also includes a platform that you're going to be building.

7:34Ben Meiselas:And this is where Midas Touch wants to be the fuel to engines like yours to build your own media platform, to build your own YouTube, to build your own media company as well, so that you can do this reporting as well. And also build something generationally as well that I know you always wanted to build. So talk to us about that as well, Scott. I think the values are pretty clear. And I hope they come across as consistent. I've been championing this for quite some time. Not going to platform conspiracy theories, not going to platform lies, and not going to allow the whitewashing of history. And that's the ethos in which I'm tackling reporting, have been for some time now.

8:17And I think when we launch the program, the daily program, it's going to be an informational, newsy program. But going with that value statement of we don't platform lies and things that are corrosive to our country and corrosive to democracy. I'm not an opinionist. I'm not an editorialist. I'm not somebody who waves pom-poms. But I am focused on being an enterprise reporter who gets after truth and does not abide by the whitewashing of history and the erasing of what people have said. And that truly, truly should command attention right now because we're not just battling to find news and battling for truth.

8:58We're battling a force that is trying to contaminate and metastasize across all media. I think that's where we have a similar approach. And what's more, one of the things that's always appealed to me about Midas Touch and the network is that it's no wasted time. There's no empty calories of nonsensical or useless production quirks or bells and whistles or sound effects or post-production that minimizes the time you can spend otherwise just declaratively sharing news. Conversational, efficient, straight to the point. And I think when you have that values and principle foundation, you don't have to even really worry about the voice and the lens through which you report.

9:41Ben Meiselas:It's factual. It goes where the evidence is. It's in favor and supportive of democracy and the types of institutions that we once always valued as Americans that are under attack. in one of those institutions that you've covered your entire career. And I think you've been covering this daily beat better than just about everyone. I know because I rely on your reporting to help inform my reporting is the Department of Justice and what's been going on in the Washington, D.C. federal court and the D.C. circuit, where we see a lot of the biggest cases just because of its proximity to being in Washington, D.C., but to see in the Justice Department building draped with a gigantic banner of Donald Trump's face, like we're this authoritarian nation, and then to see both the authoritarian tactics kind of budding and coming into conflict with our judicial processes, the federal judges, the circuit courts, but then also the kind of sloppiness that we see that's intrinsic in this Trump regime as well, where sometimes, or lots of times, they miss the basic deadlines.

11:02Ben Meiselas:They don't have the lawyers show up. The judge says, submit a declaration. They don't submit the declaration. The affidavit that's signed by an ICE officer, turns out the ICE officer got a phone call the night before and said, hey, we need you to sign this. They show up and they don't know what they're even testifying to. And it's that kind of daily stuff, Scott, that with the war in Iran, with people suffering here on a day-to-day basis on affordability, it's hard to keep track and know where to focus the lens. But it is critical that we focus what's happening kind of in the nexus of all of this in D.C.

11:39Ben Meiselas:Talk to us about that, Scott. Well, it's easy to look back at history and see Democrats criticize a Republican attorney general or Republicans criticize a Democrat attorney general. And that's not terribly interesting. But this is objectively different. I think you could stand back no matter where you are in the political spectrum, see the differences. I mean, the Democrats are right when they criticize the administration for hanging that banner because the administration is taking scrutiny and taking grief for their handling of the Epstein case files for what they haven't released for what they've redacted and part of that is fueled by the fact the president's face is on the building they've made this problem for themselves there's also objective criticism no matter where you are in the political spectrum by the purge inside the department of justice they have lost a lot of talented people who have pieced out of there saying this is not for me this new politicized department of justice is not for me i'm going to quit more than there are the many who've been fired because they were part of the Trump cases or part of the January 6th prosecutions and they were let go.

12:45And you can objectively watch, Ben, as there are typos, misspellings, and issues in the court filings by perhaps an overstretched and under-resourced office here and there. We know, for example, in D.C. and in Minneapolis, they had lost so many people. There were some staffing complaints or staffing issues. That is an objective problem for the department, no matter how you look at it.

13:08Ben Meiselas:Then you also, you mentioned the January 6th cases, people who were convicted of seditious conspiracy. You were in the courtroom for all of those Proud Boy and Oath Keeper cases in January 6th cases. And I remember you reported because as I said, I was, I didn't have somebody in the courtrooms. Now we do at the Midas Touch Network, it's you. And it's a great thing that we have you because you were kind of my lifeline during a lot of it into what was happening there, what the judges were saying. And look, while there were some Trump appointed judges on some nuanced legal issues that may have made decisions that perhaps upset the DOJ and prosecutors and others who said, I disagree with that interpretation.

13:57Ben Meiselas:Overall, whether you were a Trump appointed judge, based on my memory of all of these cases, a Biden appointed judge, an Obama, a Bush, a Reagan, whoever, these judges took these cases very seriously. Thousands of them came before them that the judges oversaw. Lots of these cases went to juries. I mean, there was an occasional bench trial were on a specific issue, maybe a defendant, you know, won a specific, but overwhelmingly these cases brought in front of judges and jury conviction after conviction. Then the proud boy oath keeper seditious conspiracy cases where you had these judges on a bipartisan basis calling out the horrific conduct that they observed during these trials.

14:43Ben Meiselas:So then to see Donald Trump's mass pardons of everybody, and frankly, the pardon with such a broad brush, I saw your reporting on this, it even covered potentially conduct that wasn't even on January 6th itself, based on the language. And then this weekend, Scott, we see Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio hanging out at Mar-a-Lago, partying it up in Mar-a-Lago after his pardon as well. There are the photos of him this weekend. And so you covered this so extensively. I just wonder your take right now, because that right there has secondary and third and fourth level implications about law and order generally when people can get off for doing what they did.

15:31Common misconception about January 6th is that it is a piece of history. It was, but it's also a current kinetic evolving story. It is still relevant because not only did you have this mass issue of clemency, all these pardons, and all these people released from prison, including those who beat and maimed police officers, but you have this undercurrent of people who are unapologetic, if not celebratory, of the violence that occurred that day. And this whitewashing of history is an absolute cancer on American democracy. So this is a current threat. Without accountability, the victims still feel victimized.

16:09A lot of victims were re-traumatized by the pardons. And I'll tell you, from being in the courtroom every day, Ben, you could see the unapologetic people even there at sentencing when it was worth their self-interest to try to express some remorse and still wouldn't. How about the seditious conspiracy defendant who raised a fist and yelled, Trump won, as he was walking out of the courtroom after sentencing? This new pattern of January 6th, pardoned rioters and defendants being out there, being celebrities, being politically active, trying to get close to Trump, none of that's surprising. And that's why I'm so grateful for anybody who takes a moment to subscribe to my pages and my platforms because I'm going to be in the courtrooms moving forward for all these critical legal challenges about the threat to democracy.

16:56People who are suing to try to counteract some of these executive orders and policies. Being in the courtroom tells you a lot then because, as you know better than anybody, there are no cameras in these courts. There's no audio feeds in most of these courts. The only way to get the actual nuggets of news as they happen is from the reporters who are in there. And we are now positioned to be in all the courtrooms as often as we need to be, or in my case, also banging around Capitol Hill looking for news that otherwise can't service.

17:23Ben Meiselas:Just a reminder, everybody subscribe to Scott McFarlane's sub stack right now. Also subscribe to his YouTube. It's at Scott McFarlane News. That's what you search on YouTube at Scott McFarlane News. I got to ask you before we go, just your reaction to Donald Trump's post about the death of Robert Mueller, former FBI director, also decorated veteran, somebody who selflessly made the biggest sacrifices for our country. And Donald Trump's post is Robert Mueller just died. Good. I'm glad he's dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people. President Donald J. Trump and then throughout the day where Donald Trump was giving 48 hour ultimatums that we would commit, let's just call it what it is, a war crime, civilian infrastructure being a target in a war, my view constitutes a war crime.

18:25Ben Meiselas:He's just posting, saying that we're going to do that. And then he goes out and posts photos of himself from like, I don't know if these are from the 80s or 90s when he was close friends with Epstein. He posts these photos in the early days of Mar-a-Lago. You know, there are lots of people, Scott, who say Trump makes crazy posts. And if you chase the crazy posts all the time, you won't be, you'll be missing things. And that's what he wants you to do. Now, my view is you can walk and chew gum at the same time. Every post doesn't require you to be like, oh my God, Donald Trump made a post about himself in front of Mar-a-Lago or Donald Trump posted a video of himself dumping feces on protesters, you know, like he did during one of the No Kings protests.

19:13Ben Meiselas:But I think that there's a connective tissue here. While there are deeply serious issues confronting the American people, while people are suffering and struggling and can't afford things and now they can't afford gas. And they're wondering, am I going to be able to pay rent the next month? I don't know. What the hell is happening? Family members who have members of their family in the military, not clear what's this mission, what's even going on? What are we doing there? The American people wondering the same, covering up of the Epstein files. This type of behavior, to me, it's why I kind of got involved in this, not from a political level, but from a, we need to grow up.

19:58Ben Meiselas:We need to act like adults and restore decency and compassion and empathy. And that ain't it. So before we go, Scott, I just want you to address that. And perhaps even the style with which you're going to bring to kind of your reporting as people subscribe to your platform and see you here. I'm so glad you asked that. I think this This gets to the fundamental nature of what we're about to do here, Ben. First of all, before I explain, can you go back to the picture? Because I'm going to give you one opinion. The picture of Donald Trump in the 80s, is that not Don Johnson's coat from Miami Vice?

20:32I think I just caught that because we need to celebrate that coat, making a new appearance since the 1980s drama days. We'll put that aside. Here's the thing. You come to my platform, subscribe and follow me. Here's what you're going to get when moments like that happen. If there's a billion opinions out there, I'm going to get you some reporting on it. Here's what I could tell you over the past 24 hours. This is a political problem for Republicans, and you're going to have a case where senators, Republicans who are on Capitol Hill this week are going to be asked about the Truth Social Post, and they're going to have to try to answer for it.

21:04That's not the message they want to be on. It happened Sunday where the Senate Republican leader was asked about it and didn't give a very declarative, unequivocal answer. We've talked about, Ben, maybe bringing a hard copy of the Truth Social Post around to ask Republican House members and senators if they've seen this or to look at it and respond to it. That gets them off message. They're trying to drive this SAVE Act message this week. They're trying to talk about transgender sports this week, even though it's not necessarily timely. So objectively, as a reporter, I can tell you over the past 24 hours, it's been a political liability.

21:34Then on Meet the Press on Sunday, the Treasury Secretary was asked about that post, not what he wanted to be talking about. And his answer was quite something and caught the attention of a lot of people in Washington. The Treasury Secretary, Ben, said that you have to put yourself in Donald Trump's mind. He experienced some bad things watching Mar-a-Lago get raided. It was very impactful on him without acknowledging that it wasn't Robert Mueller's team that raided Mar-a-Lago. It was Jack Smith's. And even so, he was asked, does that even matter? And he went back to the initial answer. So you're off message at this seminal moment when the DHS is still shut down, when the TSA lines are too long, when the gas prices are too high, when people are too fed up and elections are getting too close for some, they're off message.

22:17So you follow, you subscribe, you're going to get the latest reporting in the hallways around Washington about what these things mean. What are the facts on the ground? And then you could launch into your own probably unambiguous opinions.

22:30Ben Meiselas:Well, very big news here today on the Midas Touch Network. It is an honor to have Scott McFarlane join the Midas Touch Network. as our chief Washington correspondent. And at the Midas Touch Network, we're going to do everything we can do as well to help you grow your own platform, independent but intertwined with the great work that we're doing here and the great work that you're doing over there at McFarland Reports. I want to thank you and everybody for being here, for watching this. reminder, Scott McFarlane's YouTube channel, make sure you all subscribe now. Wouldn't that be incredible if we can get that YouTube channel 100 ,000 subscribers in the very first day right here?

23:19Ben Meiselas:It's already at 20 ,000 subscribers and Scott will be doing a regular cadence there as well. So when you check in, you'll get your daily Scott McFarlane videos on YouTube. Also make sure you subscribe to his sub stack by searching Scott McFarlane on the sub stack. We have a lot of other stuff we obviously want to talk about and will be talking about, but that's why keep checking back on the Midas Touch YouTube channel and keep checking back on the Scott McFarlane's YouTube channel. Although I have to say, Scott, the person who's probably the most happy about us bringing you on is my wife and my family because not only are they big fans of yours but they're thinking maybe scott can you know fill in for a ben video here or there in the morning and maybe get this guy to sleep before uh 10 p.m so we'll see about that i'm throwing out that challenge scott but most importantly we've always admired your work we're grateful for you and um what an honor to build this out with you i can't think of anybody else we'd love to to do that with right now and to have join the already incredible team we have.

24:29Ben Meiselas:Shout out to all of our other great hosts. We have so many incredible people here, whether it's the Legal AF YouTube channel, whether it's Katie Fang, who was absolute. When I told Katie that you were joining, Scott, Katie's face lit up and she said, she's excited to do videos with you. The whole team, the editorial team's excited. And so everybody here is grateful, Scott. So anything else you want to say before we go? This is an honor. And let me say there's a non-zero possibility that when I do fill in for you, I'm wearing the Don Johnson coat and nobody's going to be able to stop that. So just embrace that reality.

25:05Ben Meiselas:It's better than my button down shirt. We'll test it out. We'll pull it. Scott McFarlane, everybody. The new Midas Touch Network Chief Washington Correspondent. Thanks everybody for watching this live. We'll see you next time. Remember right now, subscribe to Scott McFarlane News at Scott McFarlane News on YouTube. We will see you next time on the Midas Touch Network. Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

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