Thursday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben — 2/5/26

28:00Epstein replied, she feels fresh, firm and creamy. Mandelson's next reply, naughty boy. Now we hadn't seen this email, I'll admit, when the ambassador was appointed. But let's look at what we did know when he was appointed ambassador. We knew at that point that he had consoled this paedophile, consoled him on his being found guilty and convicted for just one of the many, many crimes he'd committed. We also knew that while he was Deputy Prime Minister of this country and Business and Trade Secretary, carrying the flag of our great nation on an official visit to New York, he stayed in a convicted paedophile's flat.

28:50How dare he do that while representing this country? But the idea that no one in the Cabinet Office, no one at the Department of Business or Trade, no civil servant, no political appointee, knew that he'd said, no, I don't need a hotel. Thank you ever so much. I'm going to stay at my friend Epstein's house. Oh, by the way, he happens to currently be in prison, incarcerated, but I'm going to stay at his house anyway. That to me raises serious questions about why he was not pursued for misconduct in public office back at that point. and no one can say that the Labour government did not know because having been a civil servant, I knew where my ministers were staying, when they were abroad, not sure they always wanted me to know, but I knew and none of them would have ever done that.

29:36This is the heart of the issue with the judgment of the Prime Minister. Now on Monday, one of its ministers, the government's ministers said, nobody objected when Mandelson was appointed. I would say, look at Hansard, I remember objecting very, very clearly and repeatedly. because it was very clear at that point that Mandelson had repeatedly said that Pepsine did not deserve to be in prison, that this was an awful time for him, how he was caring and thinking for his good friend. Why was there no investigation? And why was the vetting not done right? Because there is no question that the vetting cannot have been conducted properly.

30:15I have been through vetting myself, and I accept it was not as a minister, but as a civil servant, I've been sat in a room with a rather elderly,

30:25Ben Meiselas:right again i don't care you know whether you're labor green tory new labor whatever like what she's saying you know again and i'm not again trying to say that the tories don't have any their own issues let's be clear they do but i'm saying what she said was with moral clarity watch what happens when prime minister kia starmer was questioned here let's play this clip can the Prime Minister tell us, did the official security vetting he received mention Mandelson's ongoing relationship with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein? Prime Minister? Yes, it did. As a result, various questions were put to him.

31:13I intend to disclose to this House, the national security prejudice to international relations on one side. I want to make sure this house sees the full documentation so it will see for itself the extent to which time and time again, Mandelson completely misrepresented the extent of his relationship with Epstein and lied throughout the process, including in response to the due diligence.

31:47Ben Meiselas:You hear the audible gasp. And I wanted to show that to our audience because you don't see that a lot, right? In American media showing you what's going on in the UK Parliament. But I spend a lot of time on it because also Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the truth, right? In America, we'd be used to when confronted with, you know, did you? were you aware that there was this connection in the past? And what would Trump say? I never knew anything. I never was aware. Keir Starmer answered the question honestly. And he said, yes. And we were lied to. And we're going to show you all the documentation.

32:29But he admitted to doing something bad. I mean, Starmer wasn't Mandelson, but he did recognize the error of judgment and said that he was lied to. Now, however that nets out, that's for the British people to decide. It's not for me to decide. But I sure like that system a lot better than whatever the hell we're doing here, right? That was civilized. That was decent. That was how you discuss things. That's how grownups behave, right? And I contrast that to James Comer. Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton. It's like crazy people over here. It's like crazy, right? I mean, it's crazy stuff here compared to that.

33:17And by the way, when I cover the Canadian parliament, because they're based off of the rules, same thing as well. I want to remind everybody, big audience here. First off, I think you like this format, right? Ben on Breaking News, we like this format. A reminder, the way Ben on Breaking News is different format than I do with the brothers. So the show I do at 5 Pacific, 8 Eastern, make sure you tune into that. You get different perspectives, different stuff there. Make sure you always check that out, right? I'm going to go live tonight with the brothers. Selfishly, that's my favorite show. No offense to me on this show because I get to hang out with my brothers, you know, and

34:00Ben Meiselas:I love hanging out with my brothers. And I've been doing that show longer than this one. This is my second favorite show that you're watching. But a reminder, make sure you hit subscribe to the YouTube channel. You may think you're subscribed to this channel, but you may not actually be subscribed. Turn your notifications on. Just double check that you're actually subscribed. And you know what? Can you share this channel with others? Let other people know about this channel. It'd be great. Take our first and only break of the show and we will be right back. Okay. Have you guys ever seen these chips?

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37:25Ben Meiselas:Welcome back. Welcome back. Good to see everybody. Support our pro-democracy sponsors. Let's contrast what you saw there in the UK Parliament with Donald Trump. Let's find this clip where, yeah, where Donald Trump talks about the cognitive mind tests. Let's play that clip, the cognitive mind tests. Let's play it. I feel great. I mean, physically and mentally, I feel like I did 50 years ago. It's crazy. Now, there'll be a time when I won't be able to give you that answer. But that time hasn't come. You know, I do. I think it's very important. I've done more physicals. I take physicals just to give the report out.

38:09Yeah, I take cognitive physicals. So I do a cognitive mind test. OK, and a lot of people wouldn't be able to do very well. Not easy. You know, you get to those last questions. I've aced. I've done three of them. No other president has agreed to do them. I do them because I have no problem with it because I'm 100%. Now.

38:28Ben Meiselas:It's like a crazy person. I mean, again, this is not a political thing. I think that we can all view Prime Minister Starmer's response and be very unsatisfied with it. He looked like he was a deer in headlights. I don't think that if you're the prime minister to say you were misled, you know, especially with all we know now, that does reflect on your judgment. But I think we're, I think we were at least observing the way we, the way we hope things are supposed to work out, you know. And whether Starmer's forced to resign, right? Because now he's got to worry about the majority that he has with his Labor Party there.

39:25Ben Meiselas:And granted, the next elections I don't think are supposed to happen until 2029, and it's not like a coalition government. So he should have that position until 2029.

39:37Ben Meiselas:But he's getting a lot of pressure within the Labor Party. But what we saw there is normal. In my view, like what we see here with Trump, I think is is is not normal. I mean, here he is bragging about, you know, about aspirin and taking aspirin. So he has thin blood. Here, let's play this clip. There will be aspirin, still taking the aspirin. I do. I take aspirin and I don't want to change, you know, I don't want to. So you go against your doctor's orders. You do what you kind of feel. You know, I've been taking aspirin for 30 years and I don't I don't want to change it. So, you know, they say take the smaller one.

40:12I say, well, I want that blood to be nice and thin running through my heart.

40:17Ben Meiselas:I mean, the way the reporter talks to Donald Trump, like he's talking to somebody, you know, in, you know, like a psychiatric ward. And I'm not, I'm not, I'm be very careful that I don't mean to, I'm not trying to disparage serious mental health issues and draw or even give Trump an out by comparing the things. But the, but the way the question is even, are you listening to your doctors there, Donald? I mean, how have we gone to that as the baseline, right? The reporter asks Donald about, you know, you're out there tweeting about Italian satellites being run by the CIA, rigging the 2020 election with Venezuela's help from the Chavez regime.

41:11Like, you know, this is a little bit, you're reposting things that are out there, Donald. Do you believe that stuff? Watch what Trump says. You tweeted out some theories about Italians and satellites. I mean, do you believe that stuff? No, no, no. No, I didn't. I sometimes will retweet. Yeah. I will retweet. But let me. Retruth it. I retweet. It wasn't a tweet. I retweet that stuff. Yeah.

41:42Ben Meiselas:Maduraju asking Maga Mike Johnson. So in the UK too, and this is like in the parliamentary system, in Canada also, the speaker, not political at all. The speaker of the House of Commons, not a political person, which I just think is an interesting facet as well. that it is someone who's supposed to have impeccable credentials that's not a partisan who oversees the rigorous debate on the floor where their head of state, their prime minister rather, has to show up in debate with the opposition. and the opposition has a shadow cabinet and you go there and you battle out the ideas in public transparently all the time versus here's maga mike johnson the speaker in the united states maga republican let's watch this shouldn't head trump have to answer some questions too he's been named more than a thousand times in these documents the president submits to press inquiries every day not under oath not under oath not under oath but he's asked the questions all the time and he answers them.

43:00We'll see where it goes. He gets asked the questions. He answers the questions by saying that he's been totally vindicated and there are no references to him in the files when there's 38 ,000 references to him in the files and that there are all these references to Putin. Have you seen this new document as well that talks about Epstein telling people

43:27Ben Meiselas:to short Russia's currency right around the invasion or the annexation of Crimea? It's a new email. He's saying you got to short it. Short the ruble. Right before the, like days before. that's what he says, Epstein short of the ruble five days before the annexation of Crimea, signaling he may have had foreknowledge of the event. And the links also between the Epstein files and the current situation where these oligarchs seem to be manipulating everything while screwing over everybody else, that's part of it that always needs to be discussed when we talk about the Epstein files. that yes, it is a child sex trafficking ring, the most horrible thing there is.

44:24Ben Meiselas:But in addition, child sex trafficking was the currency used by these rich men to blackmail each other and to engage in these massive corrupt moves that was breaking down the world order and then just screwing over billions of other people who lived in the world who just wanted to go about their lives. And they were using their sex trafficking as the currency with each other to then screw over the people and all these other aspects of life. So like today when we're seeing Bitcoin crash the way it did, but then it was$5 trillion last October, but now it's$2 trillion now. And people may have invested their life savings in this thing, who may not be the rich oligarchs because they thought this was going in the right direction.

45:27And now they're getting screwed from this. And it's like, who are all these insiders that have all this knowledge? And I know one observation I wanted to make and I'll connect it here, is that Epstein and Lord Mandelson used the term Liberation Day. Did you catch that? Liberation Day to refer to Epstein being free. They called it Liberation Day. That's what Trump called it Liberation Day when he screwed over the entire economy and put tariffs on the rest of the world. The markets crashed. People lost their life savings. And then Trump started giving exemptions to his right-wing oligarch buds. While small and medium-sized businesses suffer, his right-wing oligarch buds would get exemptions and they'd be okay.

46:14But the rest of the businesses get screwed and people get screwed who have to pay more money for everything. And then now what's Donald Trump spending his time on, he keeps filing lawsuits against his own government to extract settlements from himself paid for by us, paid for by the taxpayer. So here's what I want to show you. First, I'm going to show you what Trump said about suing the government. He just filed the lawsuit for$10 billion. And he says in the clip, he already won the lawsuit. Yeah, because he sued himself. And now he's going to pay himself$10 billion of our money. Then I'm going to show you what Treasury Secretary Scott Besson testified today when he was asked about those about this settlement.

47:02So first, let me show you Trump. Let's play it. Essentially, the lawsuit's been won. I guess I want a lot of money. Scott Besson's the head of the IRS. What I want is ahead of the Justice Department. They're going to defend the IRS against you. Well, there's never been anything like it. So are you going to tell them to pay you? Don't forget, I sued as a private citizen because I sued between terms. I won three times. I won three times, but I didn't assume. Unfortunately for this country, I didn't assume office the second there. But here's the story. I sued because they broke into Mar-a-Lago. That was before I became president.

47:38Now it goes along and it turned out that the suit is a very strong suit. You're going to tell them to pay you, though? You're the boss. Well, what I would do, tell them to pay me, but I'll give 100 percent of the money to charity. I don't want any of that money. You take it out of the system. A couple more questions here. No, no, I'm putting it back into the system. Yeah. If I give money to American Cancer Society, I will give 100 percent of the money away to charity. I don't want any. $30 trillion debt and we're going to take$10 billion out of the system? Well, I mean, you give it away anyway.

48:07They give away a lot of money. You're endorsing the money. But speaking about that, Minnesota and these other states, we have massive investigations going into fraud. Do you know if we captured 50 percent of the fraud of this country right now, we would have better than a balanced budget. And you've got to mention that Minnesota,$19 billion in fraud that we.

48:32Ben Meiselas:I just want you to assume. That he does donate the money, which we don't think he's going to do. You realize what he's going to do, though. He's going to take the full amount as a deduction. So he's going to steal your taxpayer money. And he's going to say that that's$10 billion of income. Then he's going to declare it on his taxes because he controls the IRS as a personal physical injury, right? so that it's tax exempt in the settlement. He's going to claim it as a personal physical tax exempt so it doesn't get taxed as income. What, is the IRS going to go after him and audit him? No. And just even assume he gives the money to charity, which I don't think he will do, he's going to take it as a complete deduction so that all of the shady deals where he's earning income he doesn't have to pay taxes on.

49:35Do you realize that that's, and he's stealing our taxpayer dollars to do that.

49:41Ben Meiselas:So Treasury Secretary Scott Besson was cross-examined by Senator Gallego about that today. Democrat from Arizona cross-examining Besson, Besson, Secretary of Treasury that oversees the IRS. So let's play the first clip of what went down. but the president prevails in this lawsuit he's going to be able to pocket that money my question is is the president has anyone in the president's office talk to you about this lawsuit in any regard uh they have not and the president said he will donate the proceeds to charity you may have missed that so no one at all has discussed this to you whatsoever no sir and the president said he have you received i'm i didn't ask any more questions have you received any advice from Treasury's legal division about how to handle this potential conflict.

50:29This is a Justice Department matter. They represent Treasury in it. Have someone from the Department of Justice actually come and talk to you saying that this is their purview and you need to stay out of it? Or who has discussed to you what is your role in this? Our general counsel, who's sitting behind me, has told me that it is a Justice Department matter. The Justice Department defends Treasury in matters like this. Okay. So you have, it has been discussed with you. Do you have any final say at all in the process of this? Or is the DOJ just going to instruct you to cut a check and or settle, and you have no independence to actually make a decision whether or not the president deserves $10 billion?

51:05Again, that is a DOJ matter. And so the DOJ will entirely make that decision if, whether or not the president should receive$10 billion. You have no say at all. Correct. So you will just have to write the check if you were told to write the check. Correct. And you would write the check willingly if you're told by a DOJ to the president. I will follow the law, Senator. Okay. I mean, I think for many of us, this is very simple. And I think if this had been happening in any other countries, it would look like a total shakedown of the American taxpayer. Are you also? Yeah.

51:39Ben Meiselas:And then I'll show you one more part of that cross-exam. Gallego is great. He's always great. He's great right here. Where he said, let's say that Trump wins that lawsuit. Wins the lawsuit against the government, against us, the taxpayers. Where does the$10 billion come from? Let's watch it. You know, we kind of talked to this earlier. In addition to being Treasury Secretary, you are serving as acting director of the IRS. So following up on Senator Kim's questioning, so you are fully aware that the president is suing your agency for$10 billion? We would agree. Would you agree that$10 billion is a good sum of money?

52:17Yes, sir. Where would that be cut from? Let's say for some reason he actually wins that lawsuit. Where would that$10 billion come from? Again, it would come from. Process. I'm not asking like your opinion, whether it's right or wrong. It would come from Treasury. It comes from Treasury, which comes from the general fund, the Treasury general account. So taxpayers. Yes. Thank you. Part of the 440 ,000 taxpayers whose returns were leaked. Now, if the president, they're not suing, but of the president. Okay.

52:50Ben Meiselas:Did you hear what he said there also? Part of the either 44 ,000 or he may have said 404 ,000 taxpayers whose taxes were released. So there was a hack or a data breach. A guy named Little John got his hands on 400 ,000. When I was a litigator, I handled data breach cases. Remember some of the big credit score companies were data breached? Remember those cases? I worked on those types of data breach cases. Class actions. You may have been a victim of one of those. And if you know the settlement, you probably got, because I worked on the settlements back in 2017, 2018, Equifax, and all of those, right?

53:45You got free data protection service, and maybe you got 500 bucks.

53:53Ben Meiselas:And then you got like a few years of like data security protection, maybe. And that was kind of the way that's the way it was resolved or something like that, because there were so many people who were injured. Okay, you can get$10 billion, right? And that's how usually these data breach cases are resolved. And it's horrible that it happens, but that's usually the resolution. So just assume that he said 44 ,000 other people and not 404, because I did the math on 44 ,000. So if the 44 ,000 people, including Trump, if they all sued for$10 billion, right? Because Trump's saying that he has a case.

54:31Ben Meiselas:So why can't the other 44 ,000 or 404 ,000 people sue for$10 billion? Why can't you sue? Trump says he was injured,$10 billion. Why can't you? So if 44 ,000 or just say 40 ,000 people each sued the government for$10 billion, that means there would be about $440 trillion plus in damages. $440 trillion in damages. The entire debt that our country faces right now, which is increasing under the Trump regime, it's about$38 trillion. And that number is going higher. Trump adds more debt in the trillions than anybody before by far. So now what Donald Trump is creating a precedent for is another$400 trillion in debt if everybody filed the lawsuit.

55:23Ben Meiselas:And that's if it's just$44 ,000. So now do the math if that's$440 ,000. So I don't even know what that number is. I don't know. What's it called after a trillion? like a bajillion, a trillion, a trillion. I don't know. I'll have chat GPT or someone. Tell me what the answer is. But it would be whatever the next thing that comes after trillion is and significantly into that. So that's the precedent that Trump, just play it out. Okay. Well, I would argue if my taxes were leaked, I deserve 10 billion too, DOJ. That would be my argument. So you paid him, I get paid 10 billion, right? And what's the DOJ going to say?

56:03You don't have a claim. So perhaps that's what we all do. Why don't, if anyone was involved, why don't we file a class action together? And we each say we were damaged. I would love for, how many people are in the chat room right now? I would love for everybody in this chat room to each get,

56:22Ben Meiselas:there's 16 ,000 people watching this live right now. And by the time this episode is watched over the course of the day, half a million people or so will watch this episode, maybe more, maybe a little less, right? Why don't we all sue together and imagine that? Imagine if I delivered not just the truth on the news, but I helped you get$10 billion. Is it quadrillion? Quadrillion. What if I got you a quadrillion dollars? You'd be like, wow, this is the greatest host. Rachel Maddow, she's good. She's good like Midas, but she doesn't give me a quadrillion. You know, that's what I'll offer. Quadrillion.

57:03That'll be my pitch. Watch the Midas Touch podcast. Subscribe to our sub stack and I will get you a quadrillion dollars. A quadrillion.

57:16Ben Meiselas:We need to be serious people. These are serious times. Made more serious by the clown in the oval, the fascist clown in the oval. And we really need to, on a nonpartisan political basis, truly recognize what's happening here. Abolishing ICE shouldn't be a political talking point. It should be an existential demand because they are an invading force terrorizing our communities, bringing transparency and accountability to the Epstein files shouldn't be a political point because it involves underage child sex trafficking and those who are involved deserve to be punished to the highest extent imaginable under the law.

58:11Ben Meiselas:It's not a political issue. We should support health care because we want health to live. It shouldn't be a political position. We should want someone in the Oval Office who's smart, who articulates sentences, who stops talking about cognitive exams all the freaking time. We should want to support our allies because they're our allies and they were there for us and we should be there for them and not attack them.

58:45Ben Meiselas:That's the reality. So I gave you all the idea now. Go and you want to reach out. Don't reach out to the Pope. I was going to say, reach out to Popak's firm. But Popak will get so, Ben, you told people that I would represent him for a quadrillion dollars. But Popak will legit get mad at me. So don't call Popak on that lawsuit. You call another lawyer. Do not call Popak on my quadrillion dollar lawsuit idea. I want to maintain my friendship with Michael Popak. If you have other legal issues, you can call Popak for that. His Popak firm does a great job to reach out to Popak firm, but not a micro-jillion dollar lawsuit.

59:28Ben Meiselas:So I appreciate it. Remember to watch The Brother Show tonight, okay? 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific. Look forward to seeing you all there. That's it. That's it for now. I really enjoyed this format. I love spending time with all of you. Subscribe. We're 80 ,000 away from 6 million subscribers. So hit subscribe. Help us get to 6 million subscribers. 80 ,000 away. We could do that potentially in a week. We could hit 6 million. Then I could stop saying 6 million, 6 million. but then you know what I'll say? 7 million, 7 million. So I'll leave you with those words. I'll leave you with those words of wisdom right there.

1:00:14Ben Meiselas:I'll see you next time. Shout out Midas Mighty and make sure you hit subscribe. Have a good one, everybody.

1:00:31at MidasPlus.com.

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