Tuesday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben — 1/27/26

31:31Ben Meiselas:Still, with all that I've showed you in the first 29 minutes of this episode, I then don't get what is disqualifying for you. Nothing. You just, you must get off on this stuff. You must share that same pathology, that MAGA zombified pathology. We'll talk more about that when we come back. I want to remind everybody, you may think you're subscribed to this YouTube channel. Double check because you may not actually be subscribed. Go to MidasPlus.com. That's our sub stack. Join, become a member of this YouTube channel, gift memberships to others. That's how we've been growing, thanks to you. Go to store.midastouch.com for the Midas merch.

32:36which we'll be right back after our first and only quick break of the show. After all the chaos of the holidays, I hit that familiar wall where it's 530. I'm staring into the fridge and somehow dinner has still not magically cooked itself. I've burned things, undercooked things, and I had been ordering way too much overpriced takeout. But then I got Tavala. This podcast is sponsored by Tavala. Tavala is a smart meal delivery service, fresh meals, and a smart oven that does the cooking for you. And I mean actually does it. You scan the meal's QR code, pop it in the oven, and it cooks everything perfectly.

33:11Steaming, baking, broiling, automatically. Zero guesswork. You can save up to$300 on the Tavala Smart Oven when you order six plus times by heading to tavala.com slash Midas using my code Midas for a limited time. So just the other night, I made a crispy orange chicken with fried rice in my Tavala, and it was unreal. Chef crafted. Real ingredients. tastes homemade without the headache. I'm truly obsessed. It saves me at least 45 minutes a night. And it's not just for their meals. I've scanned Eggo waffles and store-bought stuff too, and it knows exactly what to do. With high-protein, calorie-smart, gluten-free, and comfort food options, Tavala lets you eat better without the effort.

33:54Honestly, it finally removes dinner from my to-do list, and that alone makes it one of my favorite sponsors ever. For a limited time, because you are a Midas Touch podcast listener, you can save up to 300 on the Tavala Smart Oven when you order meals six plus times by heading to tavala.com slash Midas and use my code Midas. That's M-E-I-D-A-S. That's up to$300 off when you head to tavala.com slash Midas and use promo code Midas. One last time, that's T-O-V-A-L-A.com and make sure you use my promo code MIDAS, M-E-I-D-A-S, for up to$300 off the Tavala Smart Oven. Remember, with Tavala, dinner is taken care of.

34:40Welcome back. Support our sponsors. Discount codes are in the description below. It's a heavy first segment, so I'll do my best to lighten the mood in a little bit. The Midas Touch Network sent a reporter named Secret Service Sam to check out movie theaters in Los Angeles and Pasadena and the surrounding areas to see if people were actually seeing the Melania movie. And so we wanted to investigate if there was waste, fraud, and abuse behind the Melania Trump movie. Here was our findings. What did you just tell me you said? I mean, they're saying that people are paying people to watch the movie.

35:30So it's pretty empty. Wow. That sounds like evidence of fraud. Secret Service Sam here for the Midas Touch Network. And I am so excited because I am here outside the theater in Pasadena. This is the entertainment capital of the world. and I am here to see the Melania movie. Is this fraud? I'm not sure. It's packed. Patriot Secret Service, Sam here, outside the Regal in downtown LA to see my final showing of Melania the Bomb. I mean, the movie. That guy just told me they've actually paid people to come see this movie, but I got the limited popcorn. Let's go in the theater and check this one out.

36:12I'm sitting in row F, 8, F for fraud. and I've been told I'm the only person in this showing. Now this is laughable. There is just, they don't even have like a proper sign. Never seen anybody talk about their mom's death with such little emotion. He just told Melania that he won and she didn't give a shit at all. Dear G, how are you? Nice story about J.E. and the New York mag. You look great on the picture. I know you are very busy flying all over the world. I've never seen so many people in a movie theater. How is Palm Beach? I cannot wait to go down. Give me a call when you are back in New York.

36:55Have a great time. Love, Melania. This is the best, most emptiest theater I've ever been in. This is great. I've never been able to stand in the front row of a movie. Nobody's asking me to sit down. This is great. Have you ever watched a movie this close? Is anybody in here? Give me an E. Give me a P. Give me an S. Give me a T. Give me an E. Give me an I. Give me an N. What's that spell? Epstein files. That is fraud. That is fraud. Nobody is in there. It was just me. Hey, guys, how you doing? That Melania movie is terrible. Don't go see it, guys. Do not. that's some real investigative work right there thank you secret service sam for the service you did to our nation there and identifying the waste fraud and abuse at the melania movie i think it's undisputed what we just observed right there i i want to show you though you know what these mega sycophants in the house of representatives are saying today.

38:01This was a press conference that they held. Here's MAGA Republican Congresswoman Lisa McClain. Here's what she had to say about Donald Trump recently. Here's how she believes he's been acting. Let's play it. Strongest president ever. I have complete trust in President Trump that he will continue to enforce the rule of law, including each and every one of our immigration laws. Strongest, strongest man ever. I mean, these people are the biggest clowns. I don't even know how. I truly don't even know how these people exist. Maga Mike Johnson, Republican Speaker of the House, says that you can't in any way lighten the enforcement requirement of federal immigration law.

38:51That's what the American people demand and deserve. Here, play this clip. We have to make sure we maintain the important parameters here. We can't move down, go down the road of amnesty. You can't in any way lighten the enforcement requirement of federal immigration law. That's what the American people demand and deserve. We want dangerous illegal criminals to be sent out of the country, and they've been very successful with that. But I'll just show you this. So by now, you know, we have a Washington DC bureau and Pablo Monriquez has been doing a great job. So I think Pablo asked Maga Mike, one of the best questions.

39:32And he talked about Matthew 25, 35, because Maga Mike always wants to cite scripture about the atrocities. So we figured, our reporter, brilliant, this is why independent media is so needed right now, Pablo says, can you defend utilizing scripture based on Matthew 25, 35, the way you all are treating migrants? Here, play this clip. Pope Leo has cited Matthew 25, 35 to critique Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda. How would you respond to Pope Leo in scripture? So you want me to give you a theological dissertation? All right. I'll tell you what, I'll post it on my website later today, but let me give you a quick summer.

40:28Borders and walls are biblical. From the Old Testament to the New, God has allowed us to set up our civil societies and have separate nations. Immigration is not something that's frowned upon in scripture. In fact, it's welcome. and we're going to welcome the sojourner and love our neighbor as ourselves. But what's also important in the Bible is that assimilation is expected and anticipated and proper. When someone comes into your country, comes into your nation, they do not have the right to change its laws or to change a society. They're expected to assimilate. We haven't had a lot of that going on.

41:01When people cite passages out of the Old Testament, they say, well, you're supposed to take care of the sojourner and the neighbor and treat them as yourself. Welcome them in. Yes, but that is an admonition to individuals, not to the civil authorities. The civil authorities are given authority under Scripture to maintain order. Romans 12, you want to view this? Romans 13 says that the civil authorities are God's agents of wrath to bring punishment upon the wrongdoer. And it says if you do right, you have no fear of the civil authorities. But those civil authorities are necessary. It's a calling.

41:34It's a calling to maintain order in society. And we have not had that. When Biden and Harris opened the borders wide for four years, we had as many as 20 million illegals come across the country. And we all know many dangerous people, hardened criminals, child molesters, rapists, murderers, all the rest, terrorists who came into the country. We did not take care of our borders. Sovereign borders are biblical and good and right. And they're just because it's not because we hate the people on the outside. It's because we love the people on the inside. We should love our neighbors ourselves as individuals.

42:03but it's a civil authority and the government has to maintain the law. And that is biblical and it's right and it's just. And I'm happy to have this lengthy debate with anybody anytime they want to. And I'll post on my X page the longer dissertation on that for you today. Okay. Did he cite Romans 12, 13? I thought that's what he said to say that his view is that his God, endorses ICE and Border Patrol? Is that really what we just heard him say? I just googled what is right. Excuse my ignorance that I don't know what Romans 12, 13 says, but share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

42:51Doesn't seem to be what he said there. That's what I heard him saying, Romans 12. It's a Google search. What about Todd Blanche? What's the official position of our Department of Justice? Todd Blanche is basically the top official at the DOJ. He's the deputy AG who promulgates what's the DOJ's policy positions, right? What is the handbook? What does the manual say? What's the guidance to prosecutors? Let's listen to what Todd Blanche has to say as it relates to Jeffrey Epstein. This is the guidance to investigators about partying with Epstein. Let's play it. Well, some of the people we saw on camera at the rallies, is there any chance that any of these individuals who partied with Epstein and engaged in relations with minors will be prosecuted?

43:45Any chance? I'll never say no. And we will always investigate any evidence of misconduct but as you know it is not a crime to party with mr epstein and and so as horrible as it's not a crime to email with mr epstein and and some of these men may have done horrible things and and if we have evidence that allows us to prosecute them you better believe we will but it's also the kind of thing that that the american people need to understand that it isn't a crime to party with mr epstein it isn't a crime didn't look like that's all that was going on on some of those photos i mean if the photos could speak they some of them look pretty bad.

44:20That's right. And unfortunately, photos can't speak. And so we need witnesses. Are there videotapes that you all have? That's the official position. That's what they're going with. That the DOJ's view is partying with Epstein. Not that bad. Even Laura Ingraham's like, yeah, but some of the photos look really bad. Some of the videos, the emails look really bad. really bad. And they're going to go with partying with Epstein is great, all good. And Trump's going to go with the only thing the Epstein files showed about Donald was that Epstein wanted to hurt Donald Trump. It's just stupid. This is not what the file, I mean, it's not what the file said.

45:15There's still 3 million documents missing. probably 50 million pages, because a document can be multiple pages. So probably 50 million pages missing. By the way, where are all the financial accounting records? Where are all the bank records, right? I mean, Epstein was involved in a billion-dollar money laundering scheme relating to the sex trafficking. So undoubtedly, there exists bank records day by day, month by month, year by year, multiple banks. Where's that? Where's that? That's not it. Those alone should be millions of pages. And it will be a tedious task to read the bank records. That's what lawyers do.

46:18When I was a litigator, that's what you do, right? I was one of the lead lawyers in a case against a Ponzi scheme in California called Medical Cap Holdings, MedCap. and there was MedCap 1, 2, 3, 4, and they would be these special purpose vehicles and MedCap 1 would raise money. And then MedCap 2 would raise money to pay the investors of MedCap 1 and MedCap 3 would do. And the whole business model was that they would allegedly buy receivables from medical centers. And then they would collect on the receivables and you would invest, but they would buy the receivables for 50 cents on the dollar, 45 cents on the dollar.

47:08Why am I bringing this up? Because there was a SEC case brought against Medcap. SEC had a receiver. The guy's name was Tom Seaman. And we were the law firm. And our job was to go through, through, I could give you multiple other case examples, terabytes of financials, terabytes. So when the Trump's like, and by the way, I had five lawyers on my team who we worked with. That was sufficient. Maybe we had a law clerk or two also. And we would do the document review. We would go through millions of pages. We would use keyword terms, search terms, and we'd go through them every day. It's been 16 hour days.

48:00You know, it wasn't quite as fun as when I get to do YouTube videos or podcasts or right on our sub stack MidasPlus.com and sit there, show up, get into the office at 7.30 a.m. Right after graduating Georgetown Law, show up 8 a.m.

48:26you just go through the documents that's what you do that's what you do all day you'd be with a team of five people you grab lunch you order and dinner at the office you show out you show back up to your house i'm usually at 10 30 p.m you do that six days a week that's what it's like to be a young you know for those who are watching who know people who work at law firms you know and do that type of work. That's what you do. You don't complain about it. You don't whine about it. Okay, maybe privately you whine about it occasionally. But that's what you do. And you find the documents and you get it done.

49:01And you redact what needs to be redacted. And that's just what happens. That's just what you do. So when this DOJ claims they have a thousand lawyers working on it, if I had a thousand lawyers, we'd get it done in three days. a thousand lawyers that's the stupidest and stupidest thing i've ever heard 250 lawyers by the way they act like oh we didn't even have a lot of time we had 60 days what do you mean first off you had 30 days and you missed the deadline but you had since last february when pam bondi said it was on her desk and you had a thousand lawyers working on it from march of 2025 to the present that's what all the public want to talk about waste, fraud, and abuse.

49:44What were we paying all these FBI agents and DOJ lawyers overtime for if they weren't reviewing it and they were billing overtime for this stuff? By the way, did, did y 'all hear the story today about that DOJ lawyer in one of these cases where a judge was calling out the lawyer for violating court order after court order, after court order, like the DOJ, and the lawyer had like a breakdown in the court and said to the judge, she said, her name is, I think, Julie Lee. And she goes, the judge is like, counsel. Here, I'll just read it. Shocking federal court moment. DOJ attorney, Julie Lee. The judge says, what's going on, counsel?

50:32Why are you continuing to violate court order after court order. And this is what the DOJ lawyer says. The system sucks. This job sucks. Can you please hold me in contempt, Your Honor? I need to sleep. Hold me in contempt. That's where we are at the DOJ, where a DOJ lawyer is asking a federal judge to hold the DOJ lawyer in contempt to get rest so that she doesn't have to do the job anymore. It's a cry for help. And as a law professor, it's hard because I would always tell my law students in the past, the best place you can work at is the DOJ. I don't care if it's a Democratic administration or a Republican administration.

51:27Those are some of the hardest jobs to get being a DOJ lawyer. You know, it's, they usually pick the top students. You gain great experience. It's a great path if you want to become a judge. Some people stay at the DOJ for their life, but you become a, you get trial experience. It's a great way to then go into private practice. Like I know DOJ lawyers work five, six years at the DOJ. Then you work at a corporate firm and they'll pay you like 800K. Five years in, six, 800K, just because you have so much experience and clients want to hire you because you know so much. Make a lot of money and learn a lot.

52:12But now, and by the way, at the DOJ itself, you probably make 140 a year, 130 a year, still good money. but when you go into private practice you can make crazy money and there was a and be armed with so much knowledge and be in demand but like now who wants to work for the DOJ I don't know what to tell my law student you know because you don't want to sound political but it's not a matter of being political it's just the DOJ is not doing good work right now They're getting sanctioned and they're losing cases. And so right now it's not worth it. And also private firms are not going to want to hire you when you get sanctioned or when you lose

52:56Ben Meiselas:cases, right? The idea of why they hired you before is because you'd win cases and you'd gain experience. Not anymore. Now you become a podcaster. Someone said that now you become a vodka. Now you, you take your Georgetown law degree, you litigate your cases, and then you go, you know what? I'm going to be a YouTuber. That's what you do. That's what you do. I'll, I want, I want to mention, I want to mention this as well. Former president Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, they've agreed to testify before the house oversight committee regarding the Epstein files. And James Comer and the MAGA Republicans just had their bluff called because they wanted to hold the Clintons in contempt.

53:51And if you were to have a hierarchy of people to get their depositions in the public settings, right, on the Epstein files, to me, Hillary Clinton isn't on your list at all, just being blunt. There's nothing there. Bill Clinton would probably be in my tier two. I would want his deposition, but not right away. And depending on what my tier one witnesses told me, I may or may not want Bill Clinton, but I certainly would not have him tier one. Trump tier one for sure. Why? Because the sex was taking place at Mar-a-Lago. That's why, not because his name is Donald Trump, because he was close friends with Epstein.

54:39So Bill Clinton, I would put on my tier two people who had highly suspicious interactions with Epstein. Tier one would be my co-conspirators, people who have made public statements like Epstein's a great guy. Ghislaine would be tier one, right? She was willing to speak with Donald Trump's criminal defense attorney, now number two at the DOJ, but she's not being forced to testify publicly at the DOJ. Just think about that, right? My tier one, the Epstein's bankers, Epstein's, the people who run Epstein's estate, uh Epstein's lawyer those are like those are the people who I would want first I've obviously the former southern district of Florida United States attorney who covered it up people forget Pam Bondi was the AG in Florida when Epstein was involved in the sex trafficking ring there so anyway bill clinton and hillary clinton will testify but we want it to be done in public too we want a public hearing just think about that though that they want a public hearing and you know james comer and they're all going to try to avoid that but bill clinton and hillary said they want a public hearing and james comer's like what am I going to do now?

56:17If we do a public hearing and everyone's going to be talking about Donald Trump, yeah. The Democrats are going to spend the time at the public hearing talking about where's Donald Trump. We've seen Hillary Clinton at the Benghazi hearing. She said that for 12 hours, 12 hours. And so, you know, so they've agreed to testify publicly. Now what? Now what? Well, I'll tell you what? The remaining 3 million documents need to be released. Now, in my view, all of the victims and survivors whose confidential information was leaked, to me, they should be able to sue the federal government for traumatizing them.

57:01It's a legal violation, so I think they should be able to have a claim against them. I think that when we read these emails and the people who are involved, they need to be investigated and they need to be held accountable. It's very simple. It's very simple. And that starts at the top with Donald Trump. So I'll end the episode where I started it. 38 ,000 times Donald Trump's name appears on this batch of files. In 5 ,000 documents, his name appears 38 ,000 times. What are we talking about? What's the...

57:48There's really still debate at this point. So at some point, you're either with that behavior, and that's who you are as a person, or you're against it. and whether you're a Republican, Democrat, or Independent, you should be against it. But setting aside what you should be against, we should also talk about what we should be for. I don't want to lose sight of that because what we should be for, and it shouldn't be corny or feeling that what I'm saying is, why are you going there? But we should feel love and empathy and a desire for friendship and community. And we should help people. We should lift up people, should care about human dignity and human rights and equality and diversity and equity and inclusion.

58:57Those should not be bad words. We should stand up for each other. We should support democracy. We should support our allies.

59:12That's what we should do. That's what we as human beings who have a short period of time to be alive on this planet should do with our lives at a bare minimum and not use our precious time on this planet to inflict pain on others who are just trying to utilize their precious time in a meaningful and material way. That's my bare minimum.

59:47and i just think that there's there's so much going on that we lose sight or we lose track of like golden arches golden ballrooms billions of dollars in payments from the saudis and invading Greenland and attack on it. It's just, it's just this whole Trumpian cancer

1:00:19has really metastasized in a way to, to, to block a basic human dignity and a basic love and compassion out there. And so I hope you take a little bit of that away today. So with that reminder, subscribe to this YouTube channel. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. Subscribe to our sub stack, MidasPlus.com. Check out our merch, store.midastouch.com. You can join and become a member of this YouTube channel. We appreciate you and shout out to the Midas Mighty.

1:01:30Wrapped and ready. These handheld wraps pack bold flavor and 40 plus grams of protein into something hearty, satisfying and built for life on the go. From craveable sauces to satisfying textures. They're designed to keep you going without slowing you down. So put that fork down. Try the new wraps today in app or at order.sweetgreen.com. Available at participating locations only.

1:01:56Prince knows that greatness takes time, but so does laundry. So Rinse will take your laundry and hand deliver it to your door expertly cleaned. And you can take the time pursuing your passions. Time once spent sorting and waiting, folding and queuing, now spent challenging and innovating and pushing your way to greatness. So pick up the Irish flute or those calligraphy pens or that daunting Beef Wellington recipe card and leave the laundry to us. Rinse, it's time to be great. Jackson Hewitt handles your taxes and your stress. inhale on no surprise price of 149 or less exhale paying more for complicated taxes you won't inhale new tax law knowledge exhale missing out on your biggest refund certainly not don't miss paying 149 or less rest easy jackson hewitt's got your taxes guaranteed limited time offer for new clients on federal returns participating locations only turn the jacksonhewitt.com slash 149.

1:02:55Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for$15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to$15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com.