Transcript

LIVE: MAGA gets UNCOVERED as Trump ELECTION PLOT SURFACES

From MeidasTouch · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 1 h 32 min · 16,403 words · 193 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "LIVE: MAGA gets UNCOVERED as Trump ELECTION PLOT SURFACES", an episode of MeidasTouch published February 4, 2026 (1 h 32 min, about 16,403 words). It mentions 28 people, works and ideas, including Donald Trump, ICE, MAGA, Fox News, MAGA Republican.

What this episode is about

The discussion focuses on the Democrats' recent pushback against ICE raids and the strategic implications of their actions amid impending DHS funding deadlines. It highlights the potential for Democrats to create a more structured opposition, contrasting their current tactics with previous efforts and analyzing the political ramifications of separating DHS funding from other appropriations, suggesting Republicans may be at a disadvantage in the negotiations.

Key takeaways

  • Democrats' shadow hearings: a strategic chess move in the game of ICE reform negotiations.
  • Independent media as the new lifeline: mainstream outlets often ignore the stories that matter most.
  • MAGA narratives thrive in silos; the louder the independent voices, the more cracks in the echo chamber.
  • DHS funding split was a political blunder; Democrats now hold the ace in budget negotiations.
  • Mainstream media's reticence reflects a bias; not all victims fit their idealized narrative of tragedy.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 10:00: Congressman Robert Garcia, Maramar Martinez, ICE, Donald Trump
  2. – 20:00: MAGA, Ali Rahman, Fox News, MAGA Republican
  3. – 30:00: Second Amendment, Donald Trump, Fox News, SAVE Act
  4. – 40:00: Donald Trump
  5. – 50:00: SAVE Act, Donald Trump, Kaitlan Collins
  6. – 1:00:00: Donald Trump, Fox News, MAGA Republican, Kaitlan Collins
  7. – 1:10:00: Kennedy Center, Donald Trump
  8. – 1:20:00: Donald Trump, Kaitlan Collins, Washington Post
  9. – 1:30:00: Fox News, Newsmax, Trump Foundation

Notable quotes from "LIVE: MAGA gets UNCOVERED as Trump ELECTION PLOT SURFACES"

  • Corporate media. Ron, finally some push back by Democrats when it comes to these ICE raids around the country, the ICE Gestapo, as Ben likes to call them. and we should…
    about ICE · at
  • Tear gas, and I do you remember when Trump went for his photo op all those years ago by the church with the Bible and that whole shenanigans?
    about Donald Trump · at
  • This is someone that works for the United States government. I fired five rounds and she had seven holes. Now, he was talking about you and it's our understanding that he was.
    about Congressman Robert Garcia · at
  • My name is Ali Rahman and I am a resident of South Minneapolis.
    about Ali Rahman · at
  • That is the law. And so this entire argument that the MAGA Republicans make has no basis in truth.
    about MAGA Republican · at
  • Federal police you shouldn't have a gun on you and we played a lot of we showed a lot of the second amendment people going nuts over Trump and Gnome saying it so you know and…
    about Second Amendment · at
  • Caitlyn Collins asked him when he was back in the Oval Office what he meant by wanting to nationalize the elections.
    about Kaitlan Collins · at
  • Yeah. And apparently that's a Fox host claiming that there's so many people going to see the Melania movie that Democrats are panicking about the midterms now. I mean,.
    about Fox News · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Donald Trump — Person · Primary referenced political figure / antagonist · 11 mentions · first at
    Central figure in the episode’s critique: discussed re ICE raids, election “nationalization,” attacks on journalists, Epstein files, and alleged corruption/grift.
  • Ali Rahman — Person · Referenced witness/testifier · 1 mention · first at
    Provides first-person testimony about an ICE encounter and detention conditions; a key emotional and factual segment of the episode.
  • Congressman Robert Garcia — Person · Referenced lawmaker / hearing participant · 3 mentions · first at
    Shown reading text messages from an agent bragging about shooting Maramar Martinez, used to illustrate alleged ICE/DHS abuses.
  • Maramar Martinez — Person · Referenced victim/witness (hearing testimony subject) · 3 mentions · first at
    Cited as a person shot by an agent; used to demonstrate alleged brutality and lack of accountability (evidence removal).
    I'm so sorry, Miss Martinez. DHS has allowed the agent who shot you to remove evidence and to potentially destroy it.
  • Kaitlan Collins — Person · Referenced journalist (questioner in clip) · 3 mentions · first at
    Appears in clips questioning Trump about election nationalization and Epstein files; becomes target of Trump’s personal attacks.

Companies & orgs

  • ICE — Company · Business focus · 2 mentions · first at
    Discussed extensively in the context of immigration enforcement and controversial raids.
  • Fox News — Company · Referenced expert · 5 mentions · first at
    Mentioned as a media outlet with a particular political bias.
  • Kennedy Center — Company · Business focus · 9 mentions · first at
    Discussed in the context of its renaming and the backlash from performers.
    Going to reopen bigger and better than ever before. And what is the press report? Trump is closing the Kennedy Center for two years. And that's what enrages me, which is No, no, no. Why do you report the lies? What?
  • Washington Post — Company · Referenced expert · 2 mentions · first at
    Mentioned in the context of media layoffs and coverage bias.
    Here. Go on. Do you want to say something for I was going to say in the context of today's Washington Post layoffs, the massive layoffs, we were all having a discussion at Midas on our group text this morning about it. And.
  • National Guard — Company · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in the context of military actions against protesters.
    Right. and they crossed they crossed over and you know the I can't remember if it was the National Guard but the military were there clearing people. There was a helicopter buzzing people. They were using you know tear gas or similar and.
  • Newsmax — Company · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a media outlet with a particular political bias.
    A documentary. She took a $30 million payment for it. So, you have Fox promoting it round the clock, Newsmax promoting it round the clock, the president of the United States…
  • Midas+ — Company · Referenced expert · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in the context of a group discussion about media layoffs.
    I was going to say in the context of today's Washington Post layoffs, the massive layoffs, we were all having a discussion at Midas on our group text this morning about it. And one of the things that we talked about is like they don't they.
  • Trump Foundation — Company · Business focus · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned in passing in the context of charity donations.
    All of this to charity. Okay. Which we know right there the charities are going to be shady. They're all going to be right-wing charities, right? If or the Trump Foundation or Trump related charities. Yeah.

Concepts & topics

  • MAGA — Concept · Core topic · 2 mentions · first at
    Central theme of the episode, discussing the MAGA movement and its impact on politics.
    Yeah, it's you know it's interesting that you know it's something you've called for in the past right putting together a shadow cabinet holding daily press conferences. So, this is.
  • MAGA Republican — Concept · Core topic · 2 mentions · first at
    Discussed in the context of political strategy and voter suppression.
  • Second Amendment — Concept · Key argument · 4 mentions · first at
    Discussed in the context of gun rights and political strategy.
  • SAVE Act — Concept · Key argument · 3 mentions · first at
    Discussed in the context of immigration and voting rights.
    The Republicans claim D over and over again, which is also behind their push on the Save Act thing, which is a big push for them right now, is that Democrats did it…

Places & events

  • South Minneapolis — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as the residence of a witness in the hearing.
    On January 13th, on the way to my 39th appointment at Henipin County's traumatic brain injury center, I encountered a traffic jam caused by ICE vehicles and no signs indicating how to get around it.
  • Henipin County — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as the location of a traumatic brain injury center.
    On January 13th, on the way to my 39th appointment at Henipin County's traumatic brain injury center, I encountered a traffic jam caused by ICE vehicles and no signs indicating how to get around it.
  • COVID-19 pandemic — Event · Referenced expert · 3 mentions
    Mentioned in passing in the context of historical events.
  • CES — Event · Referenced expert · 3 mentions
    Mentioned in passing in the context of historical events.
  • Nobel Prize — Event · Referenced expert · 3 mentions
    Mentioned in passing in the context of historical events.
  • Olympics — Event · Referenced expert · 3 mentions
    Mentioned in passing in the context of historical events.
  • Super Bowl — Event · Referenced expert · 3 mentions
    Mentioned in passing in the context of historical events.
  • SXSW — Event · Referenced expert · 3 mentions
    Mentioned in passing in the context of historical events.
  • Ted Talks — Event · Referenced expert · 3 mentions
    Mentioned in passing in the context of historical events.
  • World Cup — Event · Referenced expert · 3 mentions
    Mentioned in passing in the context of historical events.
  • Y Combinator Demo Day — Event · Referenced expert · 3 mentions
    Mentioned in passing in the context of historical events.

Full transcript with timestamps

Welcome to Uncovered. It's Wednesday. I'm Anthony. He's Ron. And we're about to uncover the MAGA propaganda that is not covered by the mainstream and corporate media. Uh Ron, finally some push back by Democrats when it comes to these ICE raids around the country, the ICE Gestapo, as uh Ben likes to call them. Uh and we should probably all start to call them. Um this is the the Democrats running kind of shadow hearings, something they've done before. When they did it last time, it didn't really last very long, did it? And we were saying, you know, why are they not stepping up? I mean, they could go beyond shadow hearings. they could go as far as operating a kind of opposition shadow government like parliamentary uh system countries do. So just uh take us through what happened yesterday.

Yeah, it's you know it's interesting that you know it's something you've called for in the past right putting together a shadow cabinet holding daily press conferences. So, you know, this is some there there's a several things to take reads to take from this before we actually get into like what happened at the hearing from a political standpoint and a strategic standpoint. Today begins the clock, a 10-day clock on the shutdown of DHS funding, um, which was passed yesterday. They ag they agreed to pass the five appropriation bills which were non-controversial and they only agreed to a twoe CR on the DHS funding over the issue of ICE reforms. Now many Republicans have already said, "Oh, this is dead on arrival." But to me, this was this is very smart politically, very smart strategically because now they can shut down the most objectionable part of the government right now Democrats can without being blamed for shutting

anything else down. So, it's really like they have all the leverage right now in the negotiations. And I saw some very savvy Republicans say that that this is this was a bad strategy by their leadership to to split off DHS from the other the other funding bills. So, this hearing uh took place the day before that that clock is going to start that tight window is going to start to run. So we get to hear all of the worst abuses that have been committed recently in the last few weeks by ICE. The American people get to hear all this right as we begin negotiations on ICE reforms. So I that's my other take on this. The third take I'll say is this.

Like I don't know how much mainstream coverage there was of this hearing. I don't think there was hardly any at all. We covered it live. We posted clips. the clips went super viral and they were all over social media. And so I think that that this also illustrates that third thing which is the the power that independent media can have to amplify voices that mainstream media tends to ignore. And and it's essential that that corporate media cover these because otherwise, as you know, people would not even know they were going on. And because people do consume media kind of in their information silos, it it it's frustrating, isn't it, that when Democrats do put their best foot forward, the media is or the corporate media is stacked against them because of um you know republican associated media ownership. Let's take a look at the here. Go on. Do you want to say something for

I was going to say in the context of today's Washington Post layoffs, the massive layoffs, you know, we were all having a discussion at Midas on our group text this morning about it. And you know, one of the things that we talked about is like they don't they they all follow us like so many mainstream reporters follow me, editors, reporters publishers everything you know, show producers and they they like my work, you know, they they read it and stuff, but they will not share it. I mean, they they just they'll share like video clips. You give them a video clip, but they will never share anything that you write or or anything like that. They will never share a Substack, for example, an independent media thing. So, you know, that's the thing is like they want us to sort of people with huge like most of them don't have any social media traction at all. So, they want people like us with huge social media

followings to help them out and repost their stuff and put it out. And I do that more than anybody. I mean, I put out a lot of articles from mainstream media on to millions of people. Uh, but they will never reciprocate and it's just sort of like they have to sort of break and I understand them not, you know, reposting like highly partisan stuff, but there's plenty of stuff that isn't and this hearing is is a perfect example. You know, we put the clips out and but, you know, there were some mainstream journalists that at least put the clips out and that's helpful.

Um, I'm going to play to start with this clip of uh Robert Garcia reading out text messages um from an agent bragging about shooting Maramar Martinez. I want to remind people that obviously the mainstream and corporate media have covered the assassinations of of Alex Prey and Renee Good because they are white and middle class and you know more identifiable I guess with the readers and viewers. But ICE have killed is it nine or 11? I can't remember the the latest count. But there is there is a large number of people that have died in ICE custody. And uh not to mention all the additional people that have been shot or hit by pepper balls or or you know, one woman got her hand blown off, right?

Tear gas, you know, and and I do you remember when Trump went for his photo op all those years ago by the church with the Bible and that whole shenanigans?

How could I forget? Right. and they and they and they crossed they crossed over and you know the the I can't remember if it was the National Guard but the military were there clearing people. There was a helicopter buzzing people. They were using you know tear gas or similar and it was the first time we ever experienced the military turning against not just protesters but American citizens. And it felt historic and ex uh ex exhaustive and we were like let this not ever happen again. And now it's happening every day

also because of where it was, you know, right in front of the the White House, you know, um and in front of a church.

They they used uh rubber the rubber pellets there to shoot people and move the crowd

as long along with the military. Yes. I think one person lost their eye in that just just so they could like forever uh just so they could move those people out of the way so Trump could hold the Bible up upside down. The reason I bring it up is because at the time it was so shocking that it was the first time the the military were being used against Americans. And of course the military as you know as a as a as a veteran yourself as a as a you know marine. The military are designed to protect American citizens. I mean that is the role of of the of the military and and to to to turn it and switch it that is authoritarianism. Uh, and and it's only getting worse. Le let's take a look at uh Robert Garcia.

It's disgusting, shameful, and it gets worse. Miss Martinez, these are images of texts sent by the agent who shot you. And they're actually were they're actually disturbing uh to read, but I think it's important for the public to see this. The agent linked an article about your shooting and texted, read it. Five shots, seven holes. I fired five rounds and she had seven holes. Put that in your book, boys. Oh well, it is what it is. happens. This is someone that works for the United States government. I fired five rounds and she had seven holes. Now, he was talking about you and it's our understanding that he was actually bragging about his aim shooting an unarmed American citizen. Is that right?

Correct. I'm so sorry, Miss Martinez. DHS has allowed the agent who shot you to remove evidence and to potentially destroy it. Is that correct?

Correct. We're going to hear more and more of of this this kind of secret communication that goes on where you know the these people I hate to call them they're federal agents but I hate to call them police officers. I mean they are thugs, they are goons, they are a private paramilitary force and they're getting off on this stuff. They actually enjoy it and and it is a game to them.

Well, you know Yeah, exactly. It just goes to show you that that they love this. They love the cowboy stuff. They love thinking that they're Rambo, you know, or in Fallujah on the American streets. Most of these guys never served in the military. They're wannabes. They're they're yahoos. There are people who dreamed of serving in the military but didn't. And so this is the next best thing. Um and it actually pays better than the military. So go figure that. So yeah, I mean it think of how disgusting that comment is. He's bragging about, oh, five shots, five hits, as if as if you needed to shoot someone. Even if you needed to shoot someone, you don't need to shoot someone five times. And and and that wasn't necessary in this particular case to shoot at all. So he's bragging about his shooting acumen. Then of course, the seven holes is a misogynist statement. He would have used six holes,

I suppose, to describe shooting a male. Um, so you have that as well working in there and just their their whole attitude is it was the same thing after Renee Good was shot. What did he say? Effing Like,

yeah, they don't they're not sad about I've I've been 29 years as a criminal defense lawyer. I say this a lot, but you know, I handled thousands of cases, dealt with many uh cases where police officers shot people and invariably they almost are almost always traumatized themselves. That's why they're put on administrative leave right away. It's not because they necessarily did anything wrong. It's because even when you're defending yourself and you kill someone or you shoot someone, that should be to a normal human a traumatic experience. An an experience that should affect you the the rest of your life, even if you were legally justified. But for these guys, it's fun. It's fun in games. It's exciting to them. And that is a problem.

Well, they've been given the authority to do it. I mean, this is the thing that they are literally following orders to coin a phrase. Just so people know, where I am in the in the UK, the moment that a police fires their weapon, and of course, we don't have police with guns on the streets. We have kind of special armed units that are called into situations that that require an armed response. But the moment a bullet fires from a gun, it automatically goes into a system whereby the police officer is relieved of their duties instantly and the it goes to an independent police complaints commission and the process of the investigation is started. And you know in in Europe police do not kill civilians. They don't even kill baddies.

They arrest people. It's only happening in America in this way. and and to normalize it is is to really fall by this authoritarian sword. Um, and it's only going to get worse. We we have a clip now which is very uh difficult to listen to and I I kind of pre-warn you. It's very moving um of a young lady that people may have seen in in the clip of her driving her car through a traffic jam uh trying to get to a doctor's appointment and having her window smashed by ice and and being dragged out the car despite her being uh having a disability and explaining that very very moving and and this formed part of this hearing that we uh that we saw yesterday.

My name is Ali Rahman and I am a resident of South Minneapolis. I'm a Bangladeshi American born in northern Wisconsin and I'm a disabled person with autism and a traumatic brain injury. Not all autistic brains do this, but mine fixates on sounds, numbers, and patterns. And while what the world saw happen to me exactly three weeks ago today on video was a terrible violation, it is still nothing compared to the horrific practices I saw inside the Whipple Center. So I am here today with a duty to the people who have not had the privilege of coming home. And I offer this data because these practices must end now.

On January 13th, on the way to my 39th appointment at Henipin County's traumatic brain injury center, I encountered a traffic jam caused by ICE vehicles and no signs indicating how to get around it. I had not wanted to pull into a blocked, chaotic intersection, but verbally agreed to do so and rolled down my window after an agent yelled, "Move! I will break your effing window." his first instruction. Agents on all sides of my vehicle yelled conflicting threats and instructions that I could not process while watching for pedestrians.

Then the glass of the passenger side window flew across my face. I yelled, "I'm disabled." at the hands grabbing at me. And an agent said, "Too late." I felt immersed in a pattern and I thought of Genanoa Donald, an autistic black man killed by police during a traffic stop in 2021. I remembered Mr. Cberio Gonzalez who was killed by ICE in his vehicle last year. An agent pulled a large combat knife in front of my face, which I thought was for cutting me, and later learned was used to cut off my seat belt. Shooting pain went through my head, neck, and wrists when I hit the ground face first, and people leaned on my back.

I felt the pattern, and I thought of Mr. George Floyd, who was killed four blocks away. I was carried face down through the street by my cuffed arms and legs while yelling that I had a brain injury and was disabled. Um Ron, this obviously is starting to get you know more than serious. I mean to say that you know ICE are crossing lines. Obviously they racially profiled this woman. there was an an opportunity because she was trying to, you know, get around the traffic. They weren't pulling her up on a traffic stop. They they spotted her. They racially profiled her.

And in their mind, this was another person that would satisfy their daily quotota of arrests.

Yeah. when this happened, which the incident happened three weeks ago. Um, and and she also, by the way, in her testimony went on to describe it probably got even worse because she went on to describe the horrific conditions at the Whipple detention facility there in Minnesota.

You know, people sleeping on concrete, freezing cold, denied medical care, denied feminine products, uh, basic things. uh you know people screaming and yelling uh agents taunting them all during during the night hard to sleep all of that stuff. So when this first happened 3 weeks ago it across MAGA social media cuz people were outraged on the left primarily and in the center polit on the political spectrum and about the fact that all she was trying to do was to get to her doctor's appointment. Now the narrative on the right and coming from ICE was that she was a protester who was trying to block in the ICE vehicles to keep them from being able to to to leave when that's not in fact what she was doing.

Right. And they they said that her claim that she was on her way to a doctor's appointment was probably a lie. In fact, that claim that claim that she was lying was repeated on Fox News. And so that's why it's important to have these hearings because not because you know you have a huge section of of of America that believes the lies that they're fed every single day. So it's so important not to just let that stand and always put the truth out there.

You mentioned and she mentioned the detention centers. There was a story that broke three or four days ago about the the regime investing or ICE investing in these large warehouses which they are converting into detention centers uh or concentration camps as we should probably call them. This is where this stuff is headed. The the point at which the quot of 3,000 arrests a day probably increases. anybody who is a person of color or or drives their car, you know, to get to a doctor's appointment is fair game. And by imprisoning people and detaining people in the worst conditions, this is a continuation of Trump's plan to ethnically cleanse America and prevent people from color um from voting because the rhetoric still very much is built on a lie, which is that immigrants, they are shipped in by Joe Biden or Barack Obama so that they can vote for the Democrats. Well, immigrants cannot vote.

That is the law. And so this entire argument that that the MAGA Republicans make has no basis in truth.

There are there are more Republicans like in Florida who try to vote in Florida who already voted up north than there are people from other countries trying to vote. So I mean it's uh that that's just it's a ridiculous canard. It's pushed constantly by Musk, by um by Trump, you know, it it's that. [clears throat] So, the question is why did the Biden administration allow so many people to come into the country? You know, and we've had this discussion many many times. And so, you know, what I believe is, you know, it was compassion, it was wanting to help people, it was all all of this stuff. You know, I I think that he went he went um he the Biden policy was a very progressive policy when it comes to immigration and you know, I believe too progressive.

So, but can I just interject and say that he he was simply following the international law of asylum, which is that when someone seeks asylum at the border, then they have to be accepted in and processed. So, it's not Biden's law that that is international law,

right? and which you know we have a strong disagreement over whether that was whether the United States must follow international law on immigration

which it now does not no correct so and I don't think it has to so we can disagree on that but but but the point that the point is why what I believe is that it was compassion it was wanting to help people it was all of that stuff it was recognizing that many of these people had legitimate asylum claims what the Republicans claim D over and over again, which is also behind their their their push on the Save Act thing, which is a big push for them right now, is that Democrats did it intentionally, deviously, that this was being done for one purpose and one purpose only, not to help people, but to bring in 20 25 million people, which is an exaggerated number, and push put them into key states around the country in order to register them to vote and make them US citizens. So they will overwhelm the white Republican areas and white Republican states at the ballot box and therefore help you know the elites in

the Democratic party take over America by using migrants for their votes which again I I have listened to a lot of immigration advocates and attorneys on the left over the years very pro-immigration people I have never heard any of them advance that argument not one person. So

it it's I you know people watching will find it interesting that you know you have crossed over the the the the line to a more progressive place since your early life as a as a Republican. But it it is interesting that you still hold this these views that I'm sure half the country hold about the fact that we shouldn't be admitting people and and you know famously South America

that's not what I said. Well finished 10 million people in three years right but but

I think it should be a controlled way of doing it and a more organized way of doing it and not a show with 10,000 people coming across the border every day.

Sure. Sure. And I and I respect that opinion. But uh you know we are bordering South America where there is conflict where there is authoritarian leadership where people have been persecuted and that's why people have made the journey to America which admittedly has branded itself for decades the land of the free the place of opportunity um you know a home a safe harbor for immigrants whether they come by ship or by land and and so clearly that is not the view of of Donald Trump because his views unlike yours are steeped

his views are nobody should come in well because his views are steeped in racism and I think that's that's the fundamental

difference I have no problem with a million even two million people a year coming in I'm I'm good with that which is much more liberal than almost any Republican

right but I'm not I'm not for no restrictions I'm not for everyone can come who wants to come that's where I draw the line and I think that position is probably where 60 65% of America is

sure. I would say though that I don't think that was the position of the Biden administration and and people are still saying that Biden actually deported far more people than Trump did in in his first year. It's only now that Trump is kind of ramping up pulling people out who are legitimately here. Maybe he did run out of drug dealers and rapists and people from mental asylums and now he's having to move on to anybody of color or who speaks with an accent who, you know, is is is worthy of the the wrath of of ICE. Um, let's just talk for a moment about this issue that is kind of splitting Republicans about firearms and and the Second Amendment because as we know, Alex Pretty brought a licensed firearm to the protest. Um, he wore it in a holster on his on in the small of his back. He didn't take it out the holster. Um, they're going on about how it was a 9 mm semi-automatic weapon with two

cartridges. Like, those details matter when he never got never got it out before he was murdered in the street on camera. Uh, contrary to Christine Gnome's version of events. Um, Donald Trump has obviously come out and said, "You can't have a gun. You can't bring a gun." and and and just explain why Republicans are so up in arms about this use of language by the president and his henchmen. One topic I get asked about um from time to time by other media outlets and I know we've brought it up a couple times as well or on other podcasts is like what's going to cause the dam to break for MAGA? You know, what's going to what's going to break the spell? And and my answer has been for many years as someone who's like deeply immersed in the MAGA culture is, you know, it's not going to be one thing. It's not going to be this one moment where everything comes apart.

What I've said consistently is it's a it's like a carpet that's fraying around the edges, you know, and pieces are coming off, chunks are coming

all the way around. Yeah. Yeah. And it's and it's from all different areas. Yeah. And we have seen Trump's foreign policy has alienated a lot of his base who want nothing to do with Venezuela, Iran, Greenland, Panama, all these adventures. They want nothing to do with it and they thought that he campaigned that way and now he's not doing it. Uh the the uh the other areas are some of the spending issues, you know, the huge increases in the budget deficit is another area. There's so many the Epstein stuff caused major problems with the base.

Uh his abortion stance, he's he's against a federal abortion ban. I mean, there's so many little things that have added up that are fraying this. And now we have this second a which second amendment issue which came out of nowhere. So we what last week we talked about Trump and Christy Gnome saying you shouldn't have a gun if you go to a protest or you encounter a federal police you shouldn't have a gun on you and we played a lot of we showed a lot of the second amendment people going nuts over Trump and Gnome saying it so you know and saying look we're not going to show up for the polls you know if you don't believe in the second amendment we also talked about the fact that Trump is not a big believer in the second amendment either He doesn't care about guns. It's just something that he does to, you know, stroke his base, but it's not in his heart something he cares about. So then, just as things are dying

down Jean Piro, the DC US attorney, goes on Fox uh two nights ago and says, "Hey, nobody who nobody in DC is allowed to have guns. If you come to DC and you have a gun, you're going to be arrested." which once again caused all those same gun rights groups to go nuts because that is actually not the law. DC has very restrictive gun laws, but you just have to have permitting. You have to go through gun safety classes. A lot of the things you don't have to do in other states, you have to do to have a gun in DC. But here you see some of the backlash. Again, this is the National Association for Gun Rights posting Janine Piro threatening to arrest people for carrying in DC, even if they are law-abiding and licensed. shows how broken and out of touch these gun laws are and unacceptable and intolerable comments by a sitting US attorney. Let's let's look at the clip of of her kind of making this point. I mean, she's not

hiding it. She's she she's got all of her energy behind it. Let's take a look. You bring a gun into the district, you mark my words, you're going to jail. I don't care if you have a license in another district, and I don't care if you're a law-abiding gun owner somewhere else. You bring a gun into this district, count on going to jail, and hope you get the gun back.

It's hard to know if she's talking as a Fox News host or as a US attorney. What role would she playing there? I think she has a different hairstyle for the different roles. I mean, that's the the joke here, isn't it, that anybody on Fox is now basically holds a senior position in the administration or the Justice Department or indeed running the Pentagon. Um, the backl How far does the backlash go?

I mean, people went nuts. I mean, you know, the gun nuts who I I follow all the gun groups, NRA, all of them, they all went crazy. I mean, she went even further than Trump. I mean, she's saying, "Even if you have a permit, even if you, you know, it's legal for you to, I'm still going to arrest you." I mean, and and what you have to keep in mind is this. These these gun people they don't believe that there should be any gun laws at all. They believe that the words shall not be infringed in the second amendment which they cite all the time means all gun laws are unconstitutional.

That's what these people believe. So, we go from their beliefs, which is that all gun law and the libs, the libs are coming for our guns, to now, you know, Trump's DC US attorney saying even if you jump through all these hoops and gotten gun permits, which they believe is illegal to begin with, you shouldn't even have to do that. She's saying even if you've done that, she's still going to arrest you if you have a gun. I mean, it's just one of the gun rights groups, I think, posted something very um I thought that was very insightful and he just said, "Look, in a lot of places, like, for example, Texas,

if 4% of us don't show up, you're going to lose a lot of races, right?" You know, and so I don't know what I mean,

I don't know what they're thinking. This congressman posted as well, I bring a gun into the district every week. Uh I have a license in Florida and DC to carry and I will continue to carry to protect myself and others. come and take it. So, I mean, I do love it when they start fighting against each other. Um, because I mean that that is a sign that there is, as you say, fraying around the edges and and it's not just on this issue. There are other issues as well. I mean, Alex Pretty being a an ICU nurse for the VA has obviously affected a lot of people, too.

Yeah. There were there were a lot of people on the right who were very critical of the PR shooting.

Yes. Yes, they were mildly critical of the of the Renee Good shooting because they kind of were willing to kind of swim along with the gun thing, you know, plus she was married to a woman. So, you had that dynamic as well. So, but then, you know, you have this guy Prey who's yeah, VA nurse, I mean, who didn't do anything, you know, didn't threaten him. So, that was a lot harder one for them to defend. So there there's so many of these things that that they're that they're struggling with and even the issue of immigration Trump is underwater on. So it's uh the midterms are shaping up as long as Democrats can keep their together and not do have too much infighting, you know, which is a little pet peeve of mine going on this week. Um as as long as they can keep their together, this should be this should be an unbelievable midterms for the Democrats. Well, we'll talk about the midterms in just a moment because there

is some news there regarding um Trump's view on who should be running elections, but first maybe we should talk about Texas and this win for the Democrats because this is huge and it has caused infighting amongst Republicans on this issue too. For those that don't know, just bring us up to speed on this on this special election.

I mean, this was a really seismic race. You have the the the state senate districts in Texas are have more people in them than congressional districts. That's how big they are. They're huge. This was a Fort Worth district, I believe. And so a huge population area. Um strong Republican area, you know, and it it flipped to a Democrat. It flipped by to the Democrat by a lot. And so this was another one that they were just every not there wasn't one political expert who got this election right even close. It was that bad. It was an issue where many many Republicans including Ted Cruz for example said and Ronda Santis Ted Cruz and Ronda Santis both candidly said this election along with all the other ones that have happened previously is a big deal. You can't take this lightly. You can't shrug this off.

Trump tried to say, "I had nothing to do with this. This was a local race I had nothing to do with." Of course, then I posted that he made three lengthy truth social post promoting the other candidate in the race, a woman, um, including one the day before the race. He was highly heavily involved in this race. So, even even in a situation where Trump weighs in in a Republican district in Texas, Democrats still won uh, very very handily. So, but you know, again, talking about the infighting on the reverse side, so everything was looking great in Texas, you know, um if Paxton gets the Republican nomination, he's so toxic with independent voters. That really puts us in the game.

And on the other side, you have Terrico and um Jasmine Crockett running in the primary. Okay. Yes. With

Karico the clear, it seems to be based on the polls the front runner right now. Colin all red recently dropped out. But then you have, you know, two days after this great result in Texas for Democrats, you know, you have them all fighting with each other, uh, going attacking each other over nonsense. Uh, you know, a a tick tocker said that she had a private conversation with Ter Rico where where Tal Rico called Red a mediocre black man, which anyone who kind of knows Tal Rico and listen it that is like preposterous that he would say that. It's completely out of context for

what he said was all red ran a mediocre campaign which many many political experts agree with that point has nothing to do with race

but you know that has become a big thing you know he put alred put out a video Crockett put out something to Rico put out something and it's just sort of like I think all of us in the Texas Democrats and all of us around the country are just kind of looking at a like, we just got this huge win, guys.

Things never looked better for Democrats in Texas, and now you have to get in a big pissing contest over nothing.

Why? Yeah, that that is a problem. I mean, the other thing is that they're all big stars. I mean, all of these individuals you mentioned, they all have a great future in politics. You know, Ter

Yeah, Terica could easily be a future president, you know, although I would personally vote for Jasmine Crockett, but that's a matter of opinion. Let's

surprise me. Let's let's take a look at Representative Pete Sessions kind of talking about this this infighting on the Republican side.

Congressman Sessions, you know, Governor Ronda Santis of Florida, you know, a conservative, no shrinking violet, said special elections are quirky and not necessarily projectable. That said, a swing of this magnitude is not something that can be dismissed. Republicans should be cleareyed about the political environment heading into the midterms. Why did this happen? And what does it tell you?

Well, John, first of all, the success of a rain dance has a lot to do with timing. And what happened is there was a huge snowstorm, ice storm really, that hit North Texas and central Texas. But let's go back to Governor DeSanta's point. Special elections are special. And what happened is there was, as I understand it, one Democrat and two Republicans that were running against each other. And it was a battle between the two Republicans and a group of people simply decided they were not going to come participate because in the still this Democrat received more than 50% of the vote. So it is it is uh listening to the music and waking up and finding out we need to be better. We need to understand what we're doing. But this was a miscalculation by the people on the ground. And I I don't know any of them. But what I will say is you should not lose any election in North Texas like this.

Yeah, he's he's pretty pissed about it, isn't he? Um my concern is that Donald Trump is going to see this result and it will only spur him on to want to rig uh the midterms in any which way he can. Do you think there's a chance of that that it puts the frighteners up him? Clearly, it it did rattle him because even though he claimed like, "Oh, I had nothing to do with it. This is no big deal." He immediately like he had been saying that he wasn't going to get involved in the race. He wasn't going to make an most likely was not going to make an endorsement between Paxton and Cornin.

He was going to stay out of it. Part of the reason is John Thun, the Senate majority leader, is 100% backing John Cornin, who probably gives them the definitely gives them the best chance to win in November. So that is who Thun is backing. He he understands that Paxton is a problem for them. Running Paxton in Texas is like is like the Republicans running Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania. I mean, it's the same kind of situation. Um or Hershel Walker in Georgia. they're going to put themselves in that box again where they're going to lose a race that they probably should win by putting the worst possible candidate forward. Um, and that's what Thoon is trying to avoid. And and all by all accounts, Trump understood that situation and was likely staying out even though his base, the MAGA base, loves Ken Paxton and Paxton has been consistently leading in the polls among the primary voters. But after this election happened, within

hours, Trump said he's going to relook at this and he's going to reconsider making an endorsement in the race. Now, the conventional wisdom among the political experts is what he's saying is he's going to probably endorse Cornin now. he's gonna go even though he doesn't like Cornin and Paxton's his golfing buddy and friend that th this result may cause him now to get involved and endorse Cornin who has the best chance of win and and if he does that then Paxton's toast. We we're going to talk in a moment about the uh the the the statements that Trump has made a few of them now about him wanting to nationalize the elections and and then take control away from the states. So, we're doing a horrible job of elections, let's face it. Um, but we'll take a quick break. We'll do that next here on Uncovered.

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code uncovered. And you can find links to our sponsors in the description below. Okay, Ron. This next topic probably should have been our first story out of the gate uh for some people um because it is massive and that is that Trump is now starting to say out loud the stuff that you and I have been predicting for well over a year now if not longer talking about the fact that you know his view of elections is that they shouldn't be that that a democratic right to a vote is really not something that sits very well with him and that if it was his choice he would operate this kind of unitary government that just kind rolls on and rolls on like Vladimir Putin has managed to kind of maintain his position for 23 odd years now. Um, let's look at a couple of clips of of Trump kind of making these points because I think that really nothing tells us how dangerous this is than, you know, the man himself

kind of admitting that elections shouldn't be run by the states. You know, amazing that the Republicans aren't tougher on it. The Republicans should say, "We want to take over. We should take over the voting the voting in at least many 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting." And we have states that are so crooked and they're counting votes. We have states that I won that show I didn't win. Now, you're going to see something in Georgia where they were able to get with the court order the ballots. You're going to see some interesting things come out. But, you know, like the 20,

he always sounds different on the phone, doesn't he? Maybe he's lying down or something, but he always sounds weird. I mean, this is again another kind of crazy late night phone call to Greg Bonino's podcast, which is back up and running since he quit his job in the

first show back, right? Since he quit his job in the FBI as as deputy director. Um, just translate the the kind of bonkers talk that Trump was saying there. I mean this is a hint for the future isn't it?

More and more he's saying the quiet parts out loud that as you point out we have been predicting with and this is a big one you know this is different than the save act which

Levit tried to clean this up the next day with the press this comment by Trump by claiming that Trump was just talking about the Save Act. That's not what this is about. the Save Act, which they falsely claim is just a voter ID bill. And they claim that since, see, if you ask American people, should you have an ID to vote, it always pulls like 80%. Right? That's because the way you ask the question, people think you should show at least some form of identification to to register at least, right? So, which which even people who vote by mail and all that typically show photo ID when they register. So, but the SA what the SAVE act wants to do is nationalize election makes one set of rules for the whole country that includes that that includes you having to bring your passport or your birth certificate in to register all kinds of

and that's why it's that's why it's stacked against women because married women's name changes and therefore it's different on the birth certificate and passport and stuff like that. it presents all kinds of problems. And so, uh, it it's not just about voter ID, but that's how they sell it. But that's not what Trump is saying here. Trump is saying that there's specific states, obviously, all the swing states that he thinks are uh rigged, you know, that the ele the people running the elections in those states are rigging them and allowing illegals to vote and allowing people who shouldn't vote and stuffing ballot boxes. Therefore, the federal government not should have like a national uniform standard. Oh, no.

That's not what he's saying. What he's saying is the federal government should go in to those states, FBI, whoever, ICE, maybe DHS, and run the elections in those states. um which is one of the things that they were talking about uh after 2020 election was going in and taking over uh the ballot the the election the seizing the ballots and rerunning the elections in certain key states. That was a Michael Flynn Steve Bannon idea that they were pushing that didn't fly and they didn't really have enough time to pull it off. But now they have had five years to get ready to pull off something some shenanigans like this. So what Trump is talking about is is this the nationalization the going in having the federal government run elections in certain places which is blatantly unconstitutional. Look when the constitution was formed this was one of the main thing sticking point this is one of the main things that the founders

were adamant about. I mean a lot of the things were sort of 50/50 or compromise issues that they put in the constitution. This was not This is one that literally every founding father agreed on except for maybe Hamilton, which is elections must be run by the states and even the federal elections. And each state could have their own unique set of circumstances, their own unique registration rules, their ways of doing it. They only had certain requirements that were uniform across the board. You know, there was but but only a a few things. Uh but the bottom line is it is written into the constitution. States run elections. The federal government is supposed to have nothing to do with running elections.

And that's always why I was uncomfortable with Democrats a few years ago pushing a national voting rights bill because I'm like this cuts both ways. You know, they can as soon as Republicans can take power, they can repeal that and pass their own set of national rules. So be careful what you wish for when you when you try and nationalize elections.

Uh after saying it on Bonino's podcast, obviously then you know some of the media picked up on it quite rightly. Caitlyn Collins asked him when he was back in the Oval Office what he meant by uh wanting to nationalize the elections. Let's see how he responded.

What exactly did you mean when you said that you should nationalize elections and which 15 states are you talking about? want to see elections be honest. And if a state can't run an election, I think the people behind me should do something about it because, you know, if you think about it, a state is an agent for the federal government in elections. I don't know why the federal government doesn't do them anyway. But when you see some of these states about how horribly they run their elections, what a disgrace it is. I think the federal government, when you see crooked elections, and we had plenty of them, and by the way, we had them last time, but go to 2020. Look at the facts that are coming out. Rigged, crooked elections. If we have areas, take a look at Detroit, take a look at Pennsylvania, take a look at Philadelphia, you go take a look at Atlanta, look at some of the places that tre horrible corruption on

elections. And the federal government should not allow that. The federal government should get involved. Uh these are agents of the federal government to count the votes. If they can't count the votes legally and honestly, then somebody else should take over.

We really need to pinch ourselves, Ron. I mean, we This is completely criminal and insane. And the fact that he's able to say this now is because he knows that he is safe. He is protected. He is, you know, he has the the keys to the to the country. And imagine if he'd have said that when he was electioneering or, you know, trying trying to get his trying to get this job back. I mean, he would have had to have pulled out of the race. We must not normalize this.

And and what what he says right there and he says the people behind him, who's the people behind him? The most senior senators and members of the committee chairs, Republican leadership, that's who was behind him, the le the Republican leadership of Congress. And what he's saying is, I don't know why the federal government just doesn't take over elections right now and these people should do something about it. Well, the reason why federal the federal government doesn't run elections is because the constitution says the states are should run it. So his problem is with the founding fathers. And if he wants to do do that, then they need to amend the constitution. and good luck trying to do a constitutional amendment to take election administration away from the states. That will never happen.

So what he's talking about is blatantly unconstitutional. Not one person in that room spoke up or said anything or will say anything about what Trump said. I mean Thoon did. He said, "Okay, you know what they do is they'll go, well, you know, we don't agree with that. That's not going to happen." you know, they just kind of say it quietly, but in response to a question, but none of them will come out and sort of condemn these these kind of statements. And what these statements are designed to do, and by the way, when he rattled off his list of cities, they were all Democratic majority cities in swing states that make up sort of probably 50% of the votes in those states are from those cities. So, that's why he's targeting them. But this is what Trump does. He always comes in with a maximalist crazy statement knowing that he can't get that, but he intends to to do something else, maybe a little bit less than that. So, that's

what he's doing here. I he knows that this is not going to happen, but he's after something else. And uh and that's really where we're going here,

right? So, he o he overreaches first. This is part of the tactic. And then the the place that he pulls back feels like it's not as bad. So we normalize it. Democrats made a deal. They got Trump to back down. The media is like Trump caved.

You know, in reality, in reality, it's the it's the gradual erosion of democracy. And this is a huge piece of of cheese being sliced off, isn't it? Because, you know, the moment you start meddling with voting, then that's when people lose that kind of the last bastion of their freedom, which is their which is their vote. the thing about this too. It's like there isn't any like swing voter in 2024 that remotely considered voting for or against Trump or Harris because of democracy. I mean the the the hardcore I mean the Democrats did. I mean the registered Democrat, they cared a lot about that issue, but all you heard about was like migrants, trans taxes, this and that, you know, Ukraine aid. I mean, there was a lot of different things that were talked about during the campaign, but you know, if you tried to talk about Trump being a threat to democracy based on the way he handled the 2020 election and aftermath,

people's eyes glaze over. They they weren't interested that in 2024 voters like, ah, that's so four years ago. That's the American mindset, which is, oh, that was a long time ago. Trump won't do that again. You know, that was a one-off when it was an indicator. And like you said, if you lose the democracy, you lose everything. None of that other stuff matters if we lose the republic.

But we're not a democracy, Ron. We're a constitutional republic. Remember that. I mean, that's the argument that people were making.

How many MAGA Republicans do you think would be able to define democracy if you ask them though?

Well, not not many, you know, not many. But see, you know, he's convinced them that that all of the elections that have been taking place in Democratic areas have been rigged for many years because he's convinced them that illegal people are voting and and Democrats are stuffing ballot boxes in these areas. So even though they've never found any evidence, no one's ever been convicted of that, no election supervisor anywhere has ever been prosecuted and convicted for it, except for one who is a Republican in Colorado, Tina Peters.

That's the only election supervisor that was convicted of anything from the 2020 election. Just one. And that was a Republican.

This is proof of of of Trump's mantra, which is if you repeat it enough times, then it eventually becomes true. And and this is the the brainwashing that has been going on now for almost a decade where he he creates a narrative. He repeats it, repeats it. His henchmen repeats it. The Fox News repeats it. And so people start to think that this is a reality and it's not based on fact. It's not based on evidence and and it reshapes America and and so if you were to ask the average people what you know what the state of America is, a lot of them are going to say Trump talking points and that is because the the repetition of narrow sentences eventually works its way into the psyche and that's not something Democrats do.

Just one like blatant example of a lie that he repeats all the time. He says, "Inflation was 9% when I took office and I brought it down to three. This is a lie that he repeats every week." Inflation was 9%. Inflation was 3% when Donald Trump took office. It was 3%. It had been 3% for a while. What is it right now? It's 3%. inflation is exactly the same as when Trump took but he over and over again he says inflation was 9% when I took office and now it's three and I've never heard anybody to his face correct him

he also says that that gas prices are $2 and you know I checked again yesterday and there's like it's 350 so I mean

his last rally that he did one of his own supporters yelled out it's 285 when he said that at the rally which never happens But, you know, I thought that that was pretty funny. And and some one of the political commentators said like he can lie to him about a lot of things. When he starts lying to him about gas prices, even his own supporters know he's full of you know.

Yeah. Um, in that uh kind of interplay with Caitlyn Collins, she then started to ask him questions about the Epstein files. He does not want to hear it anymore. As far as his concern, and we should mention that the Justice Department have basically said, "That's it now. You had your final 3 million." Uh even though there's like three million files missing, uh heavily redacted. Survivors very unhappy about the way this has been handled. I mean, it's been a show. The way that they they put all this out and then they have to pull information back again because gave too much information away, but not what people were expecting. I mean, it was a mess. Um and now Trump gets asked a question legitimately about the Epstein files. He doesn't want to talk about it. and and just to prove of his kind of misogyny, he turns it on Caitlyn Collins and criticizes her for for being a terrible reporter, but also for never

smiling. Here it is. For the country to get onto something else really, you know, now that nothing came out about me other than there was a conspiracy against me, literally by Epstein and other people. But I think it's time now for the country to maybe get on to something else.

What would you say to people that feel they haven't got justice? Mr. President,

something that people care about. Yeah. What What did you say? Go ahead. What would you What would you say to the survivors who feel

You are the worst reporter. No wonder CNN has no ratings because of people like you. You know, she's a young woman. I don't think I've ever seen you smile. I've known you for 10 years. I don't think I've ever seen a smile in your face about survival. You know why you know why you're not smiling? because you know you're not telling the truth and you're a you're a very dishonest organization and they should be ashamed of you. Okay.

Sexual mental health care. Yeah. It's always good to smile when asking questions about child sexual abuse and trafficking. Um this again I mean this goes back this there's so many threads here Ron but you know this again goes back to demonizing of women. And a lot of this goes on in the in the kind of Christian nationalist community where, you know, women should look pretty and smile, but, you know, never ask a question or even vote for that matter. And and we're starting to see him kind of really lean into that, the the silencing of women and in this case a reporter on a very important topic.

Yeah. Trump is like this dinosaur from a different world who has never sort of got with the program that, you know, women's rights and women in the workplace is a is not what it was in 1955. I mean, what he reminds me of is like that that classic movie 9 to5 with Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin and um Jane Fonda, the boss in that movie and all the like the sexist, you know, demeaning comments that he made to his staff. I mean, that's like who Trump is to reporters. And and this whole thing about, you know, you should smile more.

You never smile. He said this many times before to reporters. This was probably one of the most high-profile moments because he said it to a a star reporter, Caitlyn Collins, but also because he said it in the context of Epstein, but he has never once said that to a male reporter. He has never said, "You don't smile enough." Remember, he said, "You're a young," this is what he said. You're a young woman and I've never seen you smile. So young women, that's what he expects. That's what he surrounds himself with is young, maggified, doneup women who smile a lot and praise him all the time. And that's how he expects reporters to treat him as well. And you know, I thought I posted on social media. It was odd because I was watching this press conference and and you know I've been kind of like it's so lame the these Oval Office questions cuz he fills the the White House correspondences uh group now with a bunch of his right-wing

sickopants that ask all these crazy all this crazy So you're very rarely able to get like really good questions in these whole and Caitlyn was just like hitting him with like three four in a row that and I was just sitting there going man these are some of like the best questions that Trump has been asked. She hit him with the Ukraine bombing question. These are some of the be toughest questions Trump has been asked in weeks. And then sure enough, as soon as that thought hit my head, he personally attacked her again. Yeah.

You know, which is which is what he does. Um, I often think, you know, with all the stuff that he's coming out with now, not just the criticism of of Collins and and women generally and that kind of denial of the Epstein files that he's that it's been proven that he was framed in some way and that obviously he was he wasn't mentioned in the Epstein files. Surprise, surprise. But imagine if Donald Trump instead of sitting there, you know, in in orange makeup, this kind of clown face that we've gotten used to over the last decade or 20, 30, 40 years if you consider how often he features in popular culture from The Apprentice where he kind of pretended to be a businessman that that imagine if you know we replaced his his his visual with like that of say Saddam Hussein. Imagine if he if if he was a kind of Middle Eastern dictator we wear wearing a kind of you know headgear and and and national costume and how would

Americans handle what he still says? We're not changing what he says. We're just changing what he looks like just for a minute hypothetically,

right? if we if we put him in in in a in a different outfit, one that we weren't so familiar with, that we haven't been watching on TV, that wasn't in Home Alone 2, where you know, we've normalized this weirdness, and he does look a lot more weird than any of these dictators that have been pulled out of holes in the ground eventually that that, you know, we are dealing with a a a dictator. We are dealing with somebody now who's crossed the line from being a US president who is a president for all Americans and and leads the world and is respected around the world.

We are now dealing with an infil an infiltration of of American democracy. I mean the rest of the world now is distancing itself from the US. The dollar is crashing. You know it is going to start to dissolve or or collapse. this this country is going to collapse very very quickly.

Yeah, things are not things are not going well in the economic sphere as you just said. One more thing I'll point out about his comment there and you can always find like five or six different things that talk about it each Trump comment.

You know, it is true what he said that CNN ratings are in the toilet. I just saw the latest ones today. They are quite bad.

But it is definitely not because of Caitlyn Collins. If any she is one of the few bright spots about that network,

right? But who cares? I mean, this is the thing. Who cares about CNN's ratings? It's completely irrelevant in in the country that

reporters in America, nobody reads them, right? They're in work for small outlets. Yeah.

Right. Meanwhile, the president is having American citizens executed for no crime. And you know, we we might have gotten used to there being two, you know, featured individuals who have lost their lives in recent weeks, but there are going to be dozens more names that we are going to learn and that there will be memorials to because this is not going to stop. And from all of the work that I've been doing to assess the direction that ICE and this movement is going in, there is no retreat. Tom Hman might be pulling 700 troops out of Minnesota, but they're not going home.

They're going elsewhere. And so this is only going to ramp up and you and I are only going to have to sit here each week and and learn new names of people that have died at the hands of Donald Trump.

Yep. This is uh as far as ICE goes, it's tip of the iceberg. All the new the new detention facilities that they are planning on opening up are not even online yet. And all of the new ICE officers that they just hired with the quadrupling of their budget are not through the academy. They're not on the street yet. So imagine what is happening now and times it by about five and that's where we're going to be about 6 months from now.

Yeah. Is it true they're getting 47 days training because of the number 47 and Trump's presidency? I mean, is that genuinely how he's picking this six weeks training situation? It's also the reason why the new the new U F generation fighter is being is being called an F-47

because they all understand that, you know, you name stuff after Trump and you score brownie points with with the dictator

except when it comes to the Kennedy Center when of course you you rename a national monument to a former president who was assassinated and then you decide to rename it in your name as a sitting president. I mean, this is nuts. And obviously, we've heard about all of the artists that have withdrawn their their um uh contracts working at the Kennedy Center. So, he literally can't get anybody to perform. And so, the the news this week is that he's decided to close it for renovations for 2 years. Um what did you feel or what did you think when you heard that this was his out? Yeah, I'm not happy again about mainstream media coverage of this, which I think has been pretty bad and how they've characterized it. Um, so here here's what's going on. I mean, when he repl when he fired the entire board and replaced them and said, you know, we're not going to have and he he replaced the entire board, put his sick fans in

charge, made himself in charge, then cancelled a bunch of shows that were like LBGTQ related that were considered too woke. When they did all that initially back in like February, March, about half of the performers, including like Hamilton and several others,

bailed out, but they still had about half. So then Trump got Congress to appropriate in the one big beautiful monstrosity $247 million. That's a lot of money to renovate the Kennedy Center. It's a massive amount of cash. So he announced, okay, one year from now, this is what he said like back in September. One year from now with this new money, the Kennedy Center is going to look amazing. It's we're going to redo the whole thing. One year from now, it's going to be the hottest place in town. We're going to have all the biggest shows.

It's going to be the biggest arena, everything else. So then what happens after that? They announce the name change. Now Trump's going to put his name on a building. So the the 50% of the performers that they still had

Yeah. all left. Every single one. The the only um performance that they have booked for the year 2026 was the National Symphony which said,

you know, no matter what, no matter what, we're never leaving the Kennedy Center.

And I'm sure Lee Lee Greenwood is happy to do a whole bunch of extra dates as well.

So So So they have no So what are they going to do? They're going to put 247 million to renovate this giant build and it's going to be empty, vacant. I mean, imagine the humiliation, all the media stories. No one will go there. We just spent all this money on this thing and no one will go there because Trump put his name. So Trump knew that that's how this was going to play out. So what does he do? He announces this week, I'm closing it. But how does he sucker the media? How does he get the media to take the bait? He says, "I'm closing it for two years for renovations and then it's going to reopen bigger and better than ever before." And and and what is the press report? Trump is closing the Kennedy Center for two years. And that's what enrages me, which is like, "No, no, no. Why do you report the lies? What?

Only report what he does, not what he promises, not what he claims. Report facts. The fact is he clo he shut down the Kennedy Center because they had no performers. They had no tickets to sell. They had no customers. He shut it down. Now he claims he's going to reopen it in two years. How do we know that? I mean, we only know that because that's what he's claiming. So don't report Trump is closing the Kennedy Center for two years. You report Trump closed the Kennedy Center and he claims that it's going to reopen in two years. Report it like that because that's the reality of the situation. What do I believe? I don't believe it will ever reopen Trump's term. I think he's he has

that $247 million in taxpayer money. He has plans for that money like Triumphal Arch Ballroom. He has he's going to redirect that money in other places. It is not going into a new Kennedy Center.

No, of course. And and also it'll be his builders and his builders they'll be backhanders. I mean I mean did you read about this contract that got leaked about sending these logistics trucks into Gaza for the rebuilding of Gaza? There was like a 300% profit built in and and this was like a a company that Trump was potentially siphoning off of. And you know all of this is a financial grift. any opportunity for for construction rebuilding we're bringing, you know, we're going to rebuild a country, whether it be the Gaza Riviera or whatever. These are all business deals. All of those eight wars that he claims to to have solved, those are all business deals. There there there is no such thing as as peace and and democracy to this guy. This is all a grift. We need to, you know, we need to be reminded, as you say, because that the media are not doing journalism.

Let's uh let's take a look at him using every excuse under the sun as to why the the uh Donald J. Trump Kennedy Center should close.

Renovations. You announced you wanted to build a new and spectacular entertainment complex at the Kennedy Center. Do you plan on tearing it down? And how much will all of the renovations cost? probably around $200 million. And u you know, it's funny in real estate and building, I've done so much of it. I've done so well with it. You want to sit with something for a little while before you decide on what you want to do. And you know, we sat with it. We ran it. It's in very bad shape. It's run down. It's dilapidated. It's sort of dangerous. PE things fall out uh fall out of ceilings. You've seen it. And uh we had some big events there. We had a lot of great events there over the last year. But uh you can't do any work because people are coming in and out and you have the workman. We have a marble man over there the other day. He said, "You know, every time I put down a piece of marble, people are stepping on the

marble. They don't even have time to dry." And you can't do the same quality job you if you close it. And you know, we're fully financed. And so we're going to close it and we're going to make it unbelievable, far better than it ever was. And we'll be able to do it properly. I was thinking maybe there's a way of doing it simultaneously, but there really isn't. And we're going to have something that when it opens, it's going to be brand new, beautiful. Uh I'm not ripping it out. I'll be using the steel. So, we're using the structure.

We're using some of the marble and some of the marble comes down, but when it's open, it'll be brand new and really beautiful. It'll be at the highest level. We can do a much better job. probably in a way a faster job in terms, you know, because when you do a peace meal, for instance, they have a play tonight and you can't do anything. You have to pull out everything and you can't have stansions all over the place and people are walking in to see a play. So, we'll be closing it uh sometime around July 4th. It's like we'll close it on July 4th in order to do something great for America and then we're going to build it. We have great contractors.

We're going to build it and we'll do it right. We're using uh the highest grade marbles, the highest grade everything. It'll be brand new.

Yeah. His marble man was in there. How does the president of the United States have the time to be having conversations with the marble man? I mean, who is this marble man?

This is the thing. So many. You ask him about the war in Ukraine or tax policy or immigration.

Very light on details. He'll give you like a 15second answer. Yeah. Yeah, you ask him about the ballroom or the triumphal arch or remodeling this or Marilock, he'll he'll talk for 10 minutes and you know because that's really like we talked about this. That's who he is. He's really just like

a resort host, you know, who became president, you know, he who hosts like cheesy 1980s style garish resorts.

Yes. for he's he's kind of like like the CEO of Sandals, you know, resorts, you know, of these weirdly controlled vacation environments, right?

And that's what he loves. And and when he says it's fully financed, he's talking about the 247 million that Congress just gave him.

Yes. Which, by the way, note that he says it'll cost around 200 million. Well, that leaves 47 million extra laying around, you know, but he's not going to do, you know. Wouldn't it be great though if that question or a follow-up hadn't pointed out, well, isn't it true that you have no acts booked for 2026 because every single performer that had been previously committed to to play there have all backed out? Wouldn't it be great if that had been included in the question, but it wasn't.

Um, Caitlyn Collins is going to be out of the press pool soon. I mean, what we're seeing is, you know, so many of the people that travel with him or that are allowed into the Oval Office or to the press room are these far-right influencers. And, you know, there are no journalists really there. And I'm still surprised that Caitlyn Collins is is allowed in. He he kind of does it so that he can't, you know, when he he he has an out. He can say, "Well, CNN, they come in and they ask me tough questions." like it's it's a useful to him to have somebody like her there, but I'm sure that her time is is running out. And any of the questions that we would like asked, we've now crossed over into an authoritarian state where, as with Vladimir Putin, you are not allowed to ask the Supreme Leader any difficult questions about their policies. It's just not it's just off the table now.

and and we need to we need to realize that, you know, the goalposts have moved.

Here's the other thing. It's very despite Trump, you know, constantly trashing the failing New York Times, which, by the way, just just announced like their most profitable year in history. He's been calling them the failing New York Times every year since 2016. They made $1.4 billion last year. They just had in the last year added 1 million new subscribers. and Trump still calls him the failing New York Times. But it's very very important for him to get mainstream media coverage. It's something that he not only for polit not not even for political reasons. It's for ego reasons. He very much wants to be in the New York Times, in the Washington Post, on CNN, on NBC, on CBS, on 60 Minutes. He loves it. He revels in it.

So much the fact that Steve Chung, his White House communications director, his primary job along with his personal assistant Natalie Harp is to show Trump every single day how many different media outlets covered him, covered his speech, covered his rally, covered his press conference. He wants to know which ones covered him and which ones didn't. That's Steve Chung's main responsibility. That has not been the case with any other president. No other president, all presidents want favorable media coverage, but no president obsesses over it daily like Trump. So despite the fact that he claims he hates all these mainstream outlets, he very much wants them to cover him,

right? And and this goes back to the deep insecurity because he knows that the economy is crashing and he knows that he is dumb and that he needs the he needs to be authenticated by these heritage or or legacy organizations. It's important to him to feel like he's a somebody or that his grift is is being bought by some. It's a tragedy really. I mean the the he's so broken really you know I often think that there can't be another person who has risen to such heights who is so damaged and you know I really think he really must hate himself so much and that's why to see himself on the front of a newspaper gives him that you know that that little bit of joy that regular people can just get from living an ordinary you know happy life. Um, and then on this very subject, he's now suing the US uh US government basically for $10 billion suing the IRS. I mean, just before I play the clip of him dressed as a penguin, just explain how

this has come about. Again, this is another beef I have with mainstream media over how they're they're packaging this this incident, which is Trump that what they what I read headlines all over mainstream media is Trump is suing the IRS for $10 billion. No, he's not. No, he is not. [snorts] What I say in my headlines and what I say every time I talk about this is Trump is suing the American people. He's suing the American taxpayers because it is the taxpayers who have to pay this. The I it's not coming out if if this gets settled by Trump's DOJ with Trump's attorneys. It is not coming out of the IRS's operating budget. It is going to be paid by the taxpayers of the United States. So that is who he's suing. He's It's Donald Trump versus the United States of America while he's president. And he's asking for an absurd amount of $10 billion.

Why? What's this latest lawsuit about? Because he's already got another lawsuit for I don't know how much. Couple billion dollars over the January 6th and having Miraago surge. He's already suing the government for that. So now he's got another one. Why? For the because one person because in 2015 and 16 he was asked repeatedly, will you disclose your tax returns? because every the rep out there, the knock against him, including from his Republican opponents in the primary were that he was the shady business guy who did all kinds of shady stuff, wasn't worth nearly what he claimed, and this whole facade of him being a successful billionaire was a lie. And that's why there was such a big push to get his tax returns released, which he promised to do many times over.

And then we know that he hatched up the scheme with Steve Bannon that he would use the excuse that, well, I'm being audited right now and therefore I can't release the tax return. Which of course was absurd. And he continued that he was asked about it again repeatedly all leading up to the 2020 election. Over and over he kept saying, "Oh, I really want to release these tax returns, but I can't because they're under audit." What we know is the reality is when they were finally leaked by a lone IRS employee um who leaked them um we found out the reason why he didn't want to leak them is because he didn't pay any taxes. That most years he paid either no taxes or one year he famously paid like $750 in taxes that we you know it showed that he did everything he possibly could to get out of paying taxes. That's why he didn't want them released. So now what he's doing is 5 years later, see he could have filed this lawsuit when it

happened. He could have filed this lawsuit any time during the last four years, but the problem with that is he would have had to go to trial on it, right?

He wouldn't control the DOJ back then. Yeah. And he didn't control the DOJ. So we he would have actually had to go in front of a civil jury suing the government and he knew that he would have lost that case in front of a jury. So he waited and now he's bringing the lawsuit when oh guess what he controls DOJ which means what it will never go in front of a jury. These cases will never why because Pam Bondi and Todd Blanch are going to settle these cases with Trump's lawyer and they're going to pay him a ridiculous amount of money most likely at some point. Not going to be before the midterms by the way. Probably be right after. And at that point Trump doesn't care anymore uh about about elections or anything. He's just he all the corruption he's doing now is going to be way worse after the midterms. So that's what's going on here. It's ridiculous. Um unfortunately very few Republicans in Congress yet again are

calling him out on this because I think what a lot of them believe is like what a lot of them claim is, oh this is probably going to go nowhere. This is just Trump being Trump. He's just trying to make a point. Well, wait till one of these cases gets settled because that's an impeachable offense in my view, both for the attorney general and Trump.

Put it on the list. No, you're suing the IRS. Talk a little bit about what it's like to be on both sides of a lawsuit.

It's very interesting. I have another one where, you know, I've virtually won the Mara Lago breakin suit and, you know, I have to work out some kind of a settlement. I'm supposed to work out a settlement with myself

because you know when the FBI broke in we sued when I was before I was president I sued

and obviously it was a very good suit and I have that one and I I have to work out the settlement and Pam Bondi on how to handle that at all.

Well, I think what we'll do is do something for charity. You know, we're thinking about doing something for charity or I'll give money to charity. We can make it a substantial amount. Nobody would care because it's going to go to numerous very good charities.

Yeah, he's he never given any money to charity. Um I just, you know, I hate seeing him and I know that we don't enjoy playing the clips of him, but it really is important that people recognize quite how corrupt this guy is and deteriorating in in many ways. And I I find that as he deteriorates mentally and physically, he becomes darker, more dangerous, more corrupt, and has even less of a conscience about this blatant theft from from the US purse. Yeah. I mean, break down that clip again. You know, there's multiple things in there.

He says, oh, he he muses about how how interesting it is. Oh, I have to settle this case with myself. I get to decide how much taxpayers have to pay me,

right? So, that was one thing, you know. Oh, isn't that interesting? Yeah. Well, that's not how democracies, that's not how constitutional republics, whatever you want to call it, that's not how it's supposed to work. That's not how our government's supposed to work. That the president

sues the American people and then settles the lawsuit and the American people have to pay him money while he's president. That's not the way our government is set up. It's spoke supposed to function, but that's what he's bragging about. Then he says, you know, I I virtually won my case on the the Marilago. What what is he what is he talk how has he virtually won the case?

Have there been depositions? No. Has there been any discovery of significance? No. Have there been any preliminary hearings or motions that he's won? No. What he's saying is I virtually won the case because I'm now the president and I now control DOJ and they are going to settle. That's that's what he's saying. And then the last part where he's pressed on, you know, but isn't this kind of weird that you're suing for all this money from taxpayers? Oh, well, he says nobody will care. Everybody will be fine with it because and he doesn't even say this. You got to watch his words very carefully because he he they're very calculated what he says. He doesn't say, "I pledge to give all of this to charity." Okay. Which we know right there the charities are going to be shady. They're all going to be right-wing charities, right? If

or the Trump Foundation or Trump Trump related charities. Yeah. But he doesn't even say that. He says,

you know, we're thinking about giving some of it to charity. You know, we're talking about it. We're thinking about it. So even there, there's nothing firm. There's nothing concrete. It's just, you know, we're giving it some thought. Maybe we'll give some to charity, maybe we won't. We'll see.

Nothing to charity. I want to go back to what I was saying earlier about if you repeat the lie enough, it kind of becomes part of the vernacular.

He rebrands a lawful search of Mara Lago with a judge's signed warrant and his lawyer's present as a raid by the FBI. Yeah. And and anybody now when asked about it would probably say when they raided Mara Lago. There was never a raid ever.

And and this is another example of him changing history by repeating the lie. Yeah. It was a search warrant executed signed by signed by a court, signed by a judge,

executed by the government. It's not it's not a raid. So what's a raid are all these warrantless uh searches of people's houses and pe and cars and everything else by ICE. Those are raids. But uh they don't want warrants. They're they're every time Democrats bring up you need to get a judicial warrant to go into one of you know to detain somebody you want to deport. Oh, they go crazy. Oh, we can't do that. But no, they jump through every possible conceivable hoop in that Marilago search. There was overwhelming probable cause. There is no judge or jury that where Trump could legitimately win this lawsuit. either either one of them. But um but because the IRS thing now, he may he may um he may be successful in that lawsuit, but what are the damages? The thing is like what how was he harmed by his own tax returns being released? He was reelected president again. So in in other words, he's claiming that he has suffered $10

billion in damages, which is more than his net worth. That's what he has suffered as a result of his own tax returns being revealed to the American people, which is something he promised he would do. So, this could be a situation where when he sued the National Football League, when he had his professional football team back in the 80s, where he won the lawsuit and the jury awarded him $1. That's the way this tax return case should go. $10 billion is ridiculous. I should also say that, you know, he threatened to sue the BBC for $10 billion, which is double their annual budget. Um, I've noticed because I've been watching recently on the BBC World News that they are having Republican uh talk you talking heads on all the time as guests, including people from the Heritage Foundation. Um, you know, people who literally wrote the project 2025 are are actually kind of coming on the BBC now and and just

protecting Trump with their with their Republican talking points. To me, I was thinking, you know, is this the BBC trying to appease Trump so they don't get sued? And and this is the deal that they've worked out with him.

Same thing's happening here with our media companies. More and more of these fringy right-wing weirdos are are on these different mainstream media networks because they're trying to appease Trump or they're afraid of his FCC chair.

Right. Okay. Um, final story is the Melania documentary. U of course we touched on it last week but it's now been released. It took $8 million on the opening weekend which is actually I think was it the highest or second highest for a for a documentary or that's what they're telling us anyway from what we saw the the um there was plenty of empty seats. What is the conspiracy that's going on here? Because

it was really funny because the weeks leading up to the release of this thing. Yeah. which of course, you know, I follow all things Melania very closely because at heart I'm like this closet gossip columnist where, you know, I'm I just love the Hollywood gossip stuff. You know, I always loved those calmness going all the way back to like the National Inquirer days. It's sort of like a vice of mine,

right? For what a guilty pleasure, right? Yeah. So, I follow I'm saying nothing, Ron.

Huh? I'm saying nothing about that. Okay. So, so I follow this. So, so what the story was leading up to it was from from the Trump from the Melania camp. By the way, I follow her agent on social media, all her friends, you know, of course. So, it was they what they were saying is this is not a documentary. This is a feature film and they didn't want people to call it a documentary. They wanted to call it's a feature film about Melania's life story. Right. So now, you know, the movie opens and eight seven eight million is pretty poulry for a feature film. It's it's terrible. Uh especially a feature film that where they spent $75 million on it, including a $35 million marketing budget. Now they want to call it a documentary because they want to compare it the revenue that's being brought in

to documentaries. Why? Because unlike feature films that are put out by major studios, talk the vast majority 99% of documentaries that are put out around the world and in the United States are made for thousands of dollars, not millions. Their budgets are 10,000, 50,000, h 100,000. It is extremely rare. Like 1% of documentaries have a budget of $1 million or more. A tiny tiny percentage. So, you take that. Then documentaries almost never air in movie theaters. They go straight to streaming. Melania, because of Amazon's Clout and Bezos and all of that, got this movie to debut in 1,400 movie theaters across the United States. No documentaries get that except for the Taylor Swift one, which destroyed Melania's by far. So, documentaries don't have marketing budgets. They don't get marketed at all.

You know, they're lucky if they can get anybody to talk about them. In this particular case, Bezos spent $35 million to market it, which is an obscene number even for feature films,

right? But the other half went to her a documentary. She she took a a $30 million payment for it. So, you have Fox promoting it round the clock, Newsmax promoting it round the clock, the president of the United States, all the right-wing influencers on social media, and it brings in $7 million. And then I got to listen to Brian Stelter, the CNN media reporter to say, "It's a hit. Melania's a hit. We were wrong. We apologize." Like, what the hell are you talking about? This movie was made for $75 million. You're comparing it to some to some college, you know, college film that's a documentary about Non Chsky, you know, you're comparing it to that.

I and then now we're finding out, by the way, which we've reported on that various different Republican groups are group buying tickets

and and giving them away for free. Uh so so there's also that those shenanigans going on. I heard her on the red carpet being interviewed and and somebody said, you know, of your $30 million payment that you got for this uh role playing yourself on a film that is not a documentary. Uh are you going to be giving that money to charity? And her answer was so funny. She said, "Uh, well, yes. I, you know, I I do a lot of work with charity with the with the children." and completely skirted the question and made it about something else that also wasn't true.

That's when she does like Putin and pretends she doesn't understand English, right? Yeah, it's it is incredible. All right, let's take a look at a couple of clips uh uh for this. Let's have a look.

But what they're really worried about is if this is India for the midterms because they're all saying, "Oh, it's done. We're going to control Congress." This is the indication that that silent majority is still out there.

Yeah. And apparently that's a Fox host claiming that there's so many people going to see the Melania movie that Democrats are panicking about the midterms now. I mean,

that's how absurd Fox is. Uh Kaylee Minelli, apparently she she loved it and so did her mom.

It soared past expectations, bringing in more than $7 million at the box office in its opening weekend. Now that is the most of any non-concert documentary in a decade. Now, Legacy Film reviewers were so certain that it wouldn't do well. Well, they would be wrong. Emily, my mom went to this this weekend in Florida. She said not only was the theater packed, it was, you know, standing room only. If you could like try to sneak in the back of the theater, people were cheering through it. They were excited. It was interactive. People entering with the film. She said it was just electric.

Electric. Yes. Electric. I encourage everybody to read the Guardian newspapers or Guardian websites uh review of it. It was probably one of the funniest film reviews I've ever read. Absolutely trashed it as saying that it was not worth um the paper it was printed on. And uh and also of course the director of this documentary appears uh in the Epstein files. So you know what goes around comes around. Uh we have to finish Ron, but um just a reminder you can download the audio podcast to this show on uh well wherever you get your podcast that drops later tonight. And uh check out our sponsors down below. Share the show, comment below, watch it again if you want to, and uh come back next week and we'll bring you another episode. Thanks a lot, Ron.

See you then, everyone.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "LIVE: MAGA gets UNCOVERED as Trump ELECTION PLOT SURFACES"?

Anthony (Guest), Ron (Guest), Ali Rahman (Guest), Robert Garcia, Maramar Martinez (Guest).

What is "LIVE: MAGA gets UNCOVERED as Trump ELECTION PLOT SURFACES" about?

The discussion focuses on the Democrats' recent pushback against ICE raids and the strategic implications of their actions amid impending DHS funding deadlines. It highlights the potential for Democrats to create a more structured opposition, contrasting their current tactics with previous efforts and analyzing the political ramifications of separating DHS funding from other appropriations,…

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

28 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Donald Trump, ICE, MAGA, Fox News, MAGA Republican, Ali Rahman. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "LIVE: MAGA gets UNCOVERED as Trump ELECTION PLOT SURFACES"?

The episode runs 1 h 32 min; the transcript is about 16,403 words in 193 timestamped sections.

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About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated February 5, 2026.