Transcript

LIVE: MeidasTouch RESPONDS to MAJOR BREAKING NEWS - 1/12/26

From MeidasTouch · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 1 h 26 min · 14,235 words · 111 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "LIVE: MeidasTouch RESPONDS to MAJOR BREAKING NEWS - 1/12/26", an episode of MeidasTouch published January 13, 2026 (1 h 26 min, about 14,235 words). It mentions 4 people, works and ideas, including CBS, ICE, US Federal Reserve, Thom Tillis.

What this episode is about

The content addresses the escalating crisis in Minnesota, where the Trump administration has deployed 1,000 ICE and Border Patrol agents amidst accusations of an invasion, prompting the state and Twin Cities to file a federal lawsuit. Additionally, it discusses Trump's threats to invade Greenland, provoking military responses from European nations, and highlights the brutal crackdown on dissent in Venezuela under the authoritarian regime.

Key takeaways

  • When a state describes federal forces as an 'invasion,' democracy's alarm bells should be ringing loud.
  • Trump's Greenland antics have Europe crafting war plans, proving absurdity can fracture NATO's unity.
  • Venezuelan collectivos and U.S. ICE share a striking resemblance, illuminating how authoritarian tendencies manifest worldwide.
  • Jerome Powell’s independence under siege; when central banks bow to politics, economies waltz toward chaos.
  • Protests in Minneapolis echo a nationwide call for accountability—a civic duty to vote may be America’s lifeline.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 10:00: Thom Tillis

Notable quotes from "LIVE: MeidasTouch RESPONDS to MAJOR BREAKING NEWS - 1/12/26"

  • The chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell. We've actually seen a number of Republican senators like Tom Tillis Marowski and others issue statements. They're very…
    about Thom Tillis · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

Companies & orgs

Full transcript with timestamps

We have a lot to discuss on this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. All hell continues to break loose in Minnesota and specifically Minneapolis and St. Paul where the Trump regime has surged an additional 1,000 ICE and Border Patrol Gustapo to invade those cities. The cities are fighting back right now. They have filed a federal lawsuit and they are calling what is taking place by its correct characterization an invasion. I mean pretty powerful to have the state of Minnesota joined by the Twin Cities saying we are being invaded right now by the Trump regime. They're claiming it's for law enforcement or fraud, but it is to literally take over by force the cities and bring it to its knees. that people there are peacefully protesting and we've been working with our partners over at Status Coup to get you on the ground reporting exclusive footage documenting what look like war crimes which is an invasion because they

are crimes against humanity taking place on the streets of Minneapolis and St. Paul. We'll cover that here on this episode. Donald Trump continues to threaten to invade Greenland. Apparently, according to multiple sources that spoke to the Daily Mail and other outlets, the Trump regime has ordered special forces to come up with an invasion plan. And now in response, you have the UK, Germany, France, and others in Europe coming up with war plans to counter a United States invasion of Greenland, which would just rip apart NATO. Should also talk about what's going on in Venezuela and the chaos taking place there. No, there aren't opposition parties celebrating on the streets. There's a vicious and brutal crackdown taking place by the authoritarian leader there, Deli Rodriguez, who's just an extension of the Maduro regime, along with Diodos Cabo, the enforcer of Maduro. and they're out there with their roving

gangs, which in Venezuela is referred to as the collectivos, stopping people, searching their phones, and if there's any pro- America or pro- opposition content, these people are getting tortured or killed and disappeared. And it's just fascinating is not the right word, but that, you know, this Gestapo paramilitary force in Venezuela is an arm of the authoritarian regime. the way the paramilitary ICE and border patrol are similar paramilitary of the authoritarian regime we have here. So we'll talk about Greenland, we'll talk about Venezuela, we'll talk about Donald Trump ordering the Department of Justice to engage in a criminal investigation of the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell. We've actually seen a number of Republican senators like Tom Tillis Marowski and others issue uh statements. They're very upset. They're very upset about this. But to be fair, the statement by Tom Tillis, the

Republican senator from North Carolina, he states that he's going to be putting a hold and blocking any of Trump's picks for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors or Trump's pick of Fed chair unless this is resolved, Trump's weaponized attack on Jerome Powell. and Powell issued an unprecedented video response saying that he's being targeted because he is going by the data about whether or not to reduce interest rates or not and that Trump has stated his intention to retaliate against him and that Trump wants there to be a Fed that's not independent and the words from Powell as well as a statement that came from most of the other chairs of the Federal Reserve top board of governors and former Treasury secretaries from both parties, Republican and Democrats. They compared what's taking place in the United States to what you see in corrupt developing authoritarian nations where there is no

independence over their central bank. So, we're going to talk about all of this and more in this episode of the Minus Touch podcast. We've got a lot to discuss. And you know Brett and Jordy one observation though stands out to me amongst many though also

I think as we reflect on this time you know whether it's the markets whether it's you know other leaders thinking that you can appease this guy and that you know his words don't matter and that he's not serious and this is how he trolls or you know this is Yeah, we'll get through it and what am I supposed to do? You know, kind of either outright support, complicity, or just not taking it seriously. Ah, he threatened Jerome Powell, but he'll taco again. You know, Trump chickens out, and so we just have to wait for it to pull back. And it's really just an opportunity to manipulate the markets.

And so, it'll go down, but then it'll go back up. And you know we are directionally moving in the wrong direction and our institutions have so brutally failed. Fortunately the people are standing up as we see in Minneapolis, St. Paul and across this country. But just an observation I wanted to make at the outset. Yeah. Uh well good to see you brothers. Good to see you Midas Mighty. I want to thank everybody for tuning in. uh whether you're watching live on YouTube or whether you're listening on the Midas Touch podcast on the various audio feeds. Man, I I just got to say like after especially after this weekend I should say I am just so disgusted um by the state of our country and obviously I think we've all felt that way now uh for the past year or so. Um but this weekend certainly felt like yet another escalation, yet another step towards autocracy. The only reason I say a step towards autocracy and not that we're in

a full-blown autocracy is that for the time being we still have elections and I'm counting on those elections actually happening and I think they are going to be the most important elections that I want to make sure everybody gets out there and that you do your civic duty and you get out there and vote. But it is certainly a very uh concerning trajectory uh to put it mildly. Um we're seeing we've been tracking what this regime has been doing now for the past year. We were warning about it during the Trump campaign and I remember just everybody saying, "Oh, you're being hyperbolic. Why are you comparing Donald Trump's words to Hitler's words? Isn't that uh inappropriate?" No, it's it's not. And we see where Donald Trump right now is taking this country. We see these masked rogue agents, just these thugs being unleashed on our streets. These paramilitary forces that are being used against the American people, against

United States citizens. I am horrified right now at what I'm seeing. and I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I am looking forward to covering it all and exposing it here on the Midas Touch podcast. So, to that regard, I'm going to pass it off to Jordy. Jordy, how you doing? I'm doing as well as anybody could be doing right now, I guess. What's up, brothers? What's up, Midas Mighty? I'm glad to be here. Uh, quick note, hit subscribe to this YouTube channel if you're not subscribed already. Some people think you're subscribed, but you're not. We are so close to 6 million subscribers on the YouTube, so hit that subscribe button. Uh, look, I I just want to start off with this in today's episode, Ben, before I send it back to you. I just want to give a shout out, man, to all of the peaceful protesters in Minneapolis and quite frankly, everyone in and who is everywhere taking to the streets in response to the murder of Renee Good,

you know, at those at the hands of those [ __ ] ICE agents. Man, we have just got to get back to a sense of a shared humanity in this world. And what the protesters taking to the streets are showing is that they are going to have their voices heard no matter what. You know that that what this Trump regime is doing is wrong to put it lightly. And that we the people are not going to be intimidated or back down from bullies. And that's exactly what this regime is. They are a bunch of bullies. I think the theme of this episode actually is going to be not backing down from bullies.

Whether it's Jerome Pal or Mark Kelly or or we the people, we do not back down from bullies. Ben, what say you? It's important that we document what's happening and it's also important that we take action. But often I hear people say, well, what else are you going to do than just report on it and document it? And I say that is an important function. And then we also have to provide a platform and uplift the incredible voices and community organizations and leaders who are actually fighting for we the people who are fighting for you. One of the things that was very important for us to build out at the Midas Touch network that I think you're seeing us implement a very uh meticulous plan that we've had and for those on our Substack Midasplus.com, you know, I've been talking about this plan for some time.

Last year was about launching internationally Midascanada and further increasing our infrastructure. At the beginning of this year, we wanted to make sure we had a reporter on Capitol Hill asking the politicians the questions that you want answered. Specifically, Pablo Monriquez is now working with the Midas Touch Network. He's doing an incredible job. And the question that he's been asking politicians, which I believe is a clear line of how we need to hold Democratic politicians accountable and anybody in general, is do they support more funding for ICE? And if they support more funding for ICE, I think that's an immediate disqualification to run for the presidency of the United States, to run in a primaries, to run in general.

At this point, you can't fund this terroristic organization. you you can't they are a rogue paramilitary force under the direction of an authoritarian leader. So Pablo has been out there asking that question to everybody from both parties. So you can hear the answer and that's not a question that's really being covered in any other outlet. The other and by the way Pablo's there asking a lot of other questions about the Epstein file cover up and everything that you want answered as well. And then separately, we've developed a partnership with an organization called Status Coup. And it's been so important for us to uplift them to try to get them a million subscribers because they have on the ground reporting in Minneapolis and St. Paul and they've been going around city to city where ICE has been making its surges. So whether it's the surge in Charlotte, Charlotte's Web was at operation, the Midway Blitz in

Chicago, the attacks on Los Angeles, the attacks on Portland and throughout the country. The folks at Status Coup have been in all of these locations. And when you watch it, it is like a wartime reporter covering an invasion. the reporters from Status Coup, they've been attacked with uh pepper balls, chemical agents, flash grenades. They've been hit like on live coverage, and you see them getting attacked as the ICE Gestapo attacks peaceful protesters. The protesters aren't escalating. The ICE and Border Patrol Gustapo are, and now we're out there documenting documenting that. Um, and we have that with the status coup, the mightest touch status coup partnership to bring you, we do lives where we show you five hours, six hours, seven hours. We work with status coup to get you reporters on the ground and then I like to do recaps the next day that break it down in about 15 to 25 minute clips to document for you what's

really taking place. I just wanted to emphasize the importance of documenting what's taking place. so that the propaganda that is being spread by this regime is met with the actual receipts of what's taking place because this regime uses the Nazi propaganda. This regime uses the Putin propaganda. They weaponize things that would certainly pull at your heart. Like, oh, what we're really trying to do with ICE, what we're really trying to do with Border Patrol, it's not just stopping the Somali fraud. They create that boogeyman, but that boogeyman ain't working anymore. They realize. So, what do they go back to? Sex trafficking. And that's what the Trump regime was saying this weekend. Christy Gnome over the weekend, Caroline Levit earlier today, the regime sends its propagandists out and they say, "Why would you be against our ICE officers?" The reasons that there's so many of them out there is

we're stopping the sex traffickers. So, are you pro- sex trafficker? This is how the MAGAS weaponize the Epstein files against their political opponents. And it's not unique to MAGA. This is an authoritarian playbook tactic. We see it used by Orban in Hungary. And guess what? Orban's regime in Budapest at their uh prison for children turned it into a child sex trafficking ring there. And there were lots of protests saying the regime is the one covering up the child sex trafficking going on within its prison system for children. But they came out Orban with the same rhetoric, the same playbook, anti-immigration, and they're going to be the ones to save the country from the child sex traffickers.

And the playbook worked for the authoritarian because they're such sociopaths that there's no low to what their lies will be about. And it's often covering up what they themselves are engaged in. And they know to most human beings those words resonate and are convincing because it's like, "Oh my god, you're here to save that and people are against you stopping sex trafficking. Oh my gosh." And then you on the other side have to argue against their sociopathic demented argument, which is something that they're not doing. And it's hard to argue against a negative. and they take it on such an extreme level that you're left stuttering in a debate. And so when you set up these debates, whether it's the debates that these right-wing podcasters want to do on the fight shows that they do on CNN, the construct of the debate always lends itself to the sociopathic authoritarian because they're spewing

lies versus you on the other side having to show the truth. And then the viewers left going, I don't know. One side wants to stop the sex trafficking and the other side's arguing that they're not doing it. Do you see why they And all the while they cover up the largest child sex trafficking ring in world history with the Epstein files, which is what's going on right now. So, I want you to take a look at what happened this weekend. And I look, we've analyzed what's going on in Minneapolis, uh, in St. Paul, and throughout the country, man. I wanted to focus though on this aspect of it because it's under reportported and understated the regime's psychological warfare backed by billions, tens of billions to brainwash with this stuff. So here's Christine, a propagandist. She was on the weekend show. She goes on regime media to roll this out and she's like, "Why would anybody be against us stopping the sex

trafficking?" Watch Gnome play the clip. Maria, we've surged HSI officers there specific to focus on sex trafficking and child trafficking. It's so prevalent in Minnesota. It's horrific. And we brought dozens and dozens of those individuals to justice already. We're going to keep hundreds of HSI officers there to continue to protect those children. Every day we get another individual that was sexual assault against a child, sodomy against a child. I can't believe that the mayor and the governor can defend allowing those people to go out there and victimize more of our more of our children and grandchildren.

Sick. I wanted a frame for you. I know you know how sick and vile and despicable that lady is. Sick. But I want you to know it's even sicker than you think that that's where she takes it to when we know that first they were going after the Somali and what they really want to do is invade and take over the city. So they use that they go there and then Caroline Levit there's no bottom to these evil evil humans. And here's what Caroline Levit says. And she again says, "What if you don't support ICE, you support the Pedos while they cover up the sex trafficking ring?" Play this clip

from the left. And I think that it just shows you where the modern-day Democrat party stands today in protecting illegal alien pedophiles and rapists and murderers over law-abiding American citizens and our brave men and women uh who serve in law enforcement. Then she walks away. She leaves that there. That's where the Democratic Party stands today. And our media that exists in sound bites that doesn't show you five, six hours straight of what's actually happening on the ground. that doesn't center their reporting in the people who are being victimized, but they center it in the propagandists who are manipulating and doing the victimizing.

You don't get that. And so, let me just show you this, then I'm going to toss it over to Brett and Jordy. Then you had Donald Trump flying back from Air Force One. And for Trump, he said, "At a bare minimum, we can all agree that Renee Nicole Good was disrespectful. How could you be disrespectful to law enforcement? So, of course, if you disrespect ICE, who which by the way are in law enforcement, as I said, they're paramililitary. This is what happens. This is the natural consequence. Let's play the clip of Trump.

At a very minimum, that woman was very, very disrespectful to law enforcement. And you heard the same noises. You saw the same crunch that I saw. You can't do that with law enforcement, whether it's police or ICE or border patrol or anybody else.

When it comes to when it comes to ICE officials, for those listening, you have Caroline Levit standing behind Trump looking all weird and creepy herself. And then at one point, I'm not going to play this clip, Trump's like, I'm I'm here. I may need to grab something, but I can't grab Caroline, right? You'll be mad at me if I grab her. So Brett and Jordy, there's obviously so much more we can be saying on this episode about the coldblooded murder because that's what it is of Renee Nicole Good. But I think it's important that I I I open up that window to the psychological manipulation that's used and has been used in order to justify the atrocities.

Yeah, I think it's an important connection to make. And I'd go as far as to say that, of course, not only is this not about sex trafficking. I don't even believe this is about immigration or illegal immigration at all. I think this is about putting an illegal secret police force, masked police, and I I don't even want to call them police. They're just these these thugs, these paramilitary forces, these enforcers of the Trump regime putting these masked secret forces on the streets in order to terrorize the population and build a fascist state. That's what I think it is. And I think everything else is is just a pretense for doing uh just that.

And like I said earlier in this episode, I am just like so incredibly appalled watching all of this. And you know, I'm I'm just trying to think of like what other kind of comparisons to make, but I just keep coming back to the fact that I really think these people right now are just behaving as Nazis. They are following the Nazi playbook. I am very much aware that comparing an individual or group to Nazis should not be something you do lightly. But in situations like this, you have to be able to sound the alarm when you see people following along this path. Like I if you what's the point of studying history if not to call out moments like this? I'm not sure if you guys saw, but there's this GoFundMe for the ICE officer that's going around that people are donating to, which is like disgusting enough in and of itself. Um, but in within that GoFundMe, for whatever reason, it makes a point to

note that uh the mayor of Minneapolis, it says in parenthesis after his name, who is Jewish. It it says that in the GoFundMe uh for the ICE agent who murdered Renee Good in one of the GoFundMes. Then if you look at the other GoFundMe, because there are two currently set up right now that are raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for this killer. The other go uh GoFundMe, which I believe Bill Aman, that that billionaire guy uh you know, Trump supporter, uh that he donated to like a $10,000 to the profile photo of the person who made that GoFundMe is literally a seale. So like they're not exactly trying to hide it right now.

Then you look at what's coming out of the government accounts, the government Twitter accounts and Facebook accounts. It's some of the most appalling Nazi propaganda that you will ever see. They did a post the other day. Ben, I I know you covered this on on one of your hits. Uh it said one people, one empire, one leader, I believe was the phrase they used, which is a total ripoff from the Hitler Nazi phrase. One homeland, one people, one heritage. I'm focuses and Nazi imagery. And they are using it for US government propaganda in order to push forward all of these heinous actions. They're making posts on their social media that are exactly 14 words.

14 words is a nod to white nationalists and Nazis. They have a 14-word phrase about something to do with securing the existence of white people uh in the world or in the United States or something and they are using 14 words exactly in their posts as a nod to them. They are capitalizing the hh in their posts as a nod to hail Hitler. You have the secret police terrorizing the population. You have people being sent off to camps in different countries. You have Trump who's continues to consolidate the power of the executive, putting his name on buildings, putting his photo on buildings, using the government to continue to attack his political opponents or anybody who does not bend to his will. You have Elon Musk who is retweeting calls for remigration.

That's this notion. It's a white nationalist idea, a neo-Nazi idea that you can take away the citizenship of any Americans who are not white and send people back to the countries that they originated from when they immigrated here back in the day. And the person who Elon Musk retweeted specified, and by remigration, I specifically also mean the Jews. I want to be clear about that. So when you take all of this together, like what other conclusion can you possibly come to other than that this is a regime right now that wants an autocracy in this country that is behaving as if they will never leave power and wants to take the lessons that they learned from the Nazis and apply them here in the United States and use the same scapegoating tactics, use all the same tactics that they used in order to consolidate power. I think it is absolutely chilling and that's why the use of our first amendment, the use of

our voices, getting those cameras on the ground, getting our cameras in the halls of Congress, actually videotaping what ICE is doing as they terrorize these communities, as they throw flashbangs at our reporters who are down there with status coup. We need to be documenting all of this right now. It's perhaps one of the most, if not the most important thing that we could all be doing at this moment. They are telling us exactly who they are at this moment in time. If you don't believe it, I don't know what to tell you. But we're going to keep providing evidence of it here. And I think we also need to continue to call out, like we are on this show, like you all are out there, call out all of the collaborators. Call out all the corporate media who is bending the knee to this regime, like the CBS Newses and the Barry Weisses. Call out all the people around Donald Trump like the Caroline Levits and the Christy Gnome

and all of these tech people who are who are getting behind this movement. Call them all out. Don't let them get away with this crap. They are a part of it. They are responsible and they should always be held responsible and they should always have the stain of what they did to prop up this administration and they should never be able to get rid of it long after this is gone. So well said, be and Ben, you did a great job too summarizing it. I don't have much to add other than I I just want to I just want to add this. Gnome, Levit, Trump.

It's a word I've been using recently to describe this regime. They're they're creatures. I I don't see the human element in them in the sense that like where is the love? Where is the love for your fellow American when you see these folks speaking? It it's never there. If they can't condemn the murder of a mother of three, where are we as a society? Like, why do we have leaders if they don't want to lead? And let me rephrase that. Why do these leaders right now, rhetorical question, want to lead in this specific way? How can you not condemn at the highest and most in the loudest way the murder of a mother of three? Everyone saw the footage. It was everyone has seen it multiple angles, multiple times.

Now you see Donald Trump raving like a lunatic up there talking about oh and you hear the crunch. I don't even know what he's saying. But if you just can't put your politics I guess aside and say that's a real tragic thing that just happened that those kids are going to bed tonight now and forever without a mother that you can't just say that. It is it it is so damning to an entire political party because as we've said before this MAGA ilk if you will they all then just pivot they they spit out the Trump talking points you know they they then they talk about the this crunch that they hear and it's just like are you insane like are you just are you mad that you as a person can't feel for your for your fellow person in in a way that woman is dead gone forever. ever.

And you can't say that's a bad to me. Honestly, it is so disqualifying for an entire political party that they can't outwardly with their whole chest just say how horrific that was. It's crazy to me. It really is. Let me give you an ominous timeline, but also one that should instill a little bit of hope given that the people of the United States has not allowed Donald Trump to fully seize control of all aspects of our government. You know, Hitler came to power January 30th of 1933 after being appointed to the position by the German president Paul von Hindenburg. It's part of a coalition government. And then if you go through what they did there, they had their own project 2025.

It's called their enabling act. gave Hitler's cabinet power to enact laws without the Reich stag approval which eventually led to a dictatorship. What do you think Trump wants to do when he basically has MAGA Mike shut down Congress for huge periods of time and the project 2025 agenda full control coordination synchronization glycong is what they called it in Germany a broader policy to bring all aspects of German society under Nazi control whether that was in the first 50 days or a 100 days there's different uh political scientists view the timeline a little bit different but within 50 days or 100 days from January 30th 1933 Hitler controlled everything and you'll recall the Reichto fire decree which suspended civil liberties free speech assembly following the fire creating fear allowing for mass arrests the same playbook book, right? I mean, the Somali, the fraud, the the the smelt fish, you know, he's he's stealing the

water from you, you know, in in California. I mean, all of the things that they're they're the ones aiding the sex traffickers. Then you had the Malicious Practices Act, March 21st of 1933, that criminalized criticism or mockery of the government. Does that sound familiar to you? And so you you look at these things and you're like, it's the same authoritarian playbook because authoritarians historically have had a playbook. As I said on a past episode, you can say that Orwell was so prophetic in writing 1984 that he saw the future. Sure. But he also was a student of the past because there's thousands of years of history of authoritarians, malignant narcissists, totalitarians who behave certain ways and do things that have different names, but ultimately it's about total control and domination for the sake of domination.

Greenland for Trump isn't about safety and security. The same way going into Minnesota is not about stopping sex trafficking or Somali fraud. It's about domination and control. It's about Trump being a predator. And by the way, there are MAGA Republican Congress members who say they're predators. They're predators. They just want to control it. They want to own it. He's got to have it. He sees it on a map. He looks at it looks so big. It needs to be mine. Same thing with Canada. Same thing with Mexico. Why isn't all of this mine?

That's what they're looking for. So, while I said ominous timeline, Trump's frustrated because he hasn't achieved it yet. He thought with Elon Musk's money with project 2025 that they would achieve it in that first year. That's what they were hoping to do. They failed. The system of federalism and states rights actually worked. is the only safeguard in addition to the people because the country was too big and there were too many blue states that pushed back against the Trump regime's initial assault. Trump saw the National Guard. I thought that was going to work out better. That didn't work out better.

Let me surge my own paramilitary now. And he wants Minneapolis to be the starting point of a conquest of an invasion. Which is why in the lawsuit filed by Minnesota, Minneapolis, and St. Paul, they say this is a violation of our 10th amendment right which reserves all powers that are not expressly given to the federal government to the states. States have a local police power. States are the ones who are responsible for the education and for hospitals and public health and safety. And so by surging ICE and invading, now our police officers have to deal with ICE. Our police officers can't focus on law and order on the streets. Our hospitals are not functioning properly because you're attacking our hospitals. People aren't showing up to school or work because you're terrorizing the communities.

You're infringing on our 10th amendment rights. So, that was the lawsuit that was filed earlier today by Minnesota, Minneapolis, and St. Paul. I did a video on it earlier, but I wanted to make sure we fully covered what's happening there, what the broader intentions are, and that we use the right words when framing this. Trump is frustrated and he's desperate because the people haven't bent. And also if you look in places even like Texas, Trump has a net negative of like six and negative -12 when it comes to his handling of the economy and -22 when it comes to his handling of inflation. I did an recent interview with Amy Actton in Ohio.

Trump's also net negative6 negative7 over there in Ohio. People don't like this stuff. Remember the don't tread on me. Trump is Mr. I tread. He is. I am the treader. I am the destroyer. That's who he is. He is the snake. You know how there's the snake on the don't tread on me? Trump is the snake that doesn't defend. Trump is the snake that you let in who then destroys. Like that story he told was the first Midas touch video we did. All right, let's take our first break of the show. We covered a lot on that segment. A reminder, go to midasplus.com.

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After your purchase, they'll ask how you found them. Please support our show and let them know Midas Touch sent you. Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors linked in description of both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you a couple things really quick. Just on a lighter note, know that was a heavy first uh segment there. Uh the Shopify ad that you heard there, uh I spoke to them. They said, "Hey, as much as I loved Ben doing the boom boom boom, can we actually add in the correct SFX, the the correct sound, uh cues there?" And so, See that? You see the pause for sound effects? See how that works?

Good. They're gonna be like really impressed. Second, Benji, you look pretty sharp, dude. You take a straight razor to your face. You look You look really good. Really cleaned up. Nice haircut. What happened? Fresh.

Yeah. Why so fresh? First day back teaching. Hey, professor. Back to back to the professorship. And so

I was just thinking so much growth in the past year and you haven't taught since last year because you had a baby. I feel like a lot of our audience doesn't even realize that you are a law professor and uh so back to teaching. Ben, how does it feel?

You didn't have enough going on in your life. Ben, you're also you you're also somehow a professor. Congratulations.

Well, I really enjoy teaching. I think it's uh way now that I no longer practice law on a day-to-day basis, I still want to in addition to YouTube, give back to the legal community in Southern Los Angeles and Southern California in general. And so it's a way to do that. And um I think also interacting with the kind of next generation, you get a lot of ideas too and it's and it's inspirational. And so it's it's an important part of my life and I take it very seriously and I really um I I really enjoy being a teacher both on YouTube and in in an academic in an academic way. So people ask me I told the class today you know when people say what are my hobbies this is my hobby. So I hope you I hope you enjoy this class because I'm doing it because I want to uh be able to give back. Um, speaking of of of speaking up though and using your voice, I've been heartened. I've been happy to see more

people in public starting to speak out against what's happening. And it was disheartening to see a lot of the silence throughout last year. Um, the class I teach is sports law and I represented Colin Kaepernick back in 2017, 2018 back in Huntsville when Donald Trump said, "Get that son of a [ __ ] off the field." And Colin never played a down of football again. there was a lot more vocal uh aspects from athletes and and celebrities and people in positions of of of public light. And I think that you've have so much people right now in public who have a platform to speak out against this regime who don't. And frankly, that's complicity. And they don't whether it's because they think that because they're wealthy that they make more money under authoritarianism that they don't want to potentially divide their fan base if they take a political position or they like it or they're afraid. Any of those. But to me,

you have a responsibility to speak out against injustice because this stuff isn't polit political. It's not like you're out there saying, "You know what? I really don't like the fiscal policy right now coming out of uh out of out of the Republicans in Congress. It's very, you know, it's it's it's very reckless the way they're spending and and federal spending significantly, by the way." All true, they're reckless. Federal spending's higher. Um it's up. The deficit's increasing. The debt is skyrocketing right now. Trump wants a $ 1.5 trillion dollar military budget. He wants hundreds of billions of more dollars going through the ice gestapo.

Horrible. But we're talking about basic humanity. Are you okay with the government sending militarized unaccountable forces into our cities, killing people, disappearing people, terrorizing communities? Like, are you okay with the regime that's out there constantly without getting congressional authority threatening wars or getting into wars? Are you okay with someone who said he would end the war in R in Ukraine caused by Russia on day one and takes Russia's side essentially in the dispute based on what I've observed in my opinion? Are are are you are you okay with that? Are are you okay with not using your voice right now to speak out about the atrocities happening in Gaza? You're just going to be silent about it? I think we all have we all have to use our platforms. And by the way, you can be late to it. Like you could be late to it just because you didn't use your platform the right way

before. Okay? Use your platform and use your voice. It's never too late until it's too late for you to use your platform and your voice to speak out against injustice. And we saw that at the Golden Globes, more people starting to speak out, right? And I also like to see how some of the comedians were talking about CBS and they said CBS, the letters right there. That's where you see BS. I think that was pitch perfect right there. Not to mention it was on CBS which I think is a a bold move as well. I I agree there there are more folks speaking out right now and and that's important. Uh the past year, you know, I think a lot a lot of people in this community and us felt like we're on our so we're on our own here, right? And you had that whole MAGA podcasting kind of ecosystem and they were pushing all the crap. U but one of the things I noticed is that there has been this massive shift. And if you look at all

those podcasters and I'm not going to go through their names right now, you know who they are. But now all of a sudden they're like, "Wait, what what is this? I didn't vote for this. What the hell is going on here? I don't agree with this. This is everything that they warned about." And I'm like, "Yeah, duh. Okay." Like that's what we were trying to say. One of the interesting things I've seen also in the past, especially this escalation with ICE and these secret police forces and things, I've seen a lot of these kind of big kind of MAGA uh right-wing accounts who uh I'll just say do not uh think very kindly towards anybody in the center or on the left of the political spectrum coming out and basically admitting fault here, which I think at least says something. Like I'll pull up this this tweet that went viral.

I'm not going to put the individual on blast, but I'll I'll read you the tweet. It says here uh and this says a million views, 32,000 likes. I grew up conditioned to mock the looney libs, a habit formed in the early Rush Limbbo years. I no longer feel the urge. Those libs are now fighting for America's core principles. While the people who taught me to sneer at them have abandoned principles all together. I think that's a lot coming from a what's traditionally been a pro maga account. And I've seen dozens and dozens and dozens of posts just like that because like Ben said, this isn't an issue of right verse left of do you think this economic policy is better than this economic policy. This is going back to the founding of this country and the ideals set forth by the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Very basic ideas. very basic ideas about how police are used, about how military forces are used, about uh

searchs and seizures uh by law enforcement, about the right to free speech, about uh the the bullying that somebody like Trump does against people and corporations who don't take his exact point of view. What we're seeing right now goes far beyond any particular policy. It is fundamentally unamerican at every level. And so I think everybody out there who agrees, at least that 70% of people who agree with the principles of the United States, maybe not that 25 30% that are just dieh hard, die hard MAGA and we'll do whatever Donald Trump says, but that 70% needs to come together, kind of put policy aside right now and understand that we are fighting for the life of democracy of the United States of America or at least what the United States of America stands for.

There's also an article in the Wall Street Journal that came out today that talked about how much these MAGA influencers are being paid to push certain positions, paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per tweet. If you ever think, how is this person tweeting something so horrific? How could they poss and and the tweet they did two weeks ago was the complete opposite of the tweet they're doing now. How do their ideas just shift? They just do whatever Trump says. It's because they're literally getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by dark money and these secret groups in order to push their pro-fascist MAGA agendas. So much of this is astroturfed. It's all done via these algorithms that are run by people who are Trump adjacent, friendly with Trump, algorithms run by Elon Musk, the people at Meta, who are who are people who are in the Trump administration. I mean, you name it.

They are the people who are elevating this content to the top of your feed. And so it is no surprise that a lot of that content that's being elevated is content that supports Donald Trump. But when we actually go into the real world and you actually look at polling of the American people, it tells a much different story than you'd see on an app like an X or a Twitter or something like that. It it just it just does. So that's that that's that's all I want to say.

No, that's that that that's great. And look, I'm going to articulate this as best as as I can here. I am always going to give my fellow American the benefit of the doubt, especially when you're looking at an ecosystem where there are being trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars poured into in order to to quite literally brainwash you, right, with this with this MAGA propaganda from the accounts that Brett had just sort of referenced there. That's just the pocket. Like that is just that is the the slimmest of slim folks who who are making money off this MAGA grift right now to just pollute literally pollute the media airwaves whether it be on on X or threads or Facebook you name the social media platform it's out there intentionally trying to manipulate you trying to manipulate your family trying to manipulate your loved ones and it's really disgusting. The one thing though that I will always

just dig my heels into, and I'm not calling any, you know, MAGA bro podcaster out or or bro podcast out specifically here, but this whole notion of I didn't vote for it. Yes, you did. You did vote for it. And now that a mirror is just being held up to what you voted for, you decided you didn't like it. And so, look, as I said, I will always give you the offramp because we need as big of a choir as we could get here to sing these pro-democracy ideals. But also, don't lie to me in the same breath and be like, oh, this isn't what I voted for. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. But now that

the other side of that, Jordy, are the people who are like, I voted for this when something horrific happens. on something that is just like shouldn't even be like a debate like an ICE officer murders a woman. You should be able to at least take a second and say that this is a horrific horrifi horrifying situation, a very sad situation. And then you get the kind of MAGA bots on these apps going, I voted for this. Yes, this is exactly what I voted for. Yeah, that's that's kind of why we all hate you. That's that's exactly the reason

we all saw what was on the video. We saw the murder of Renee Nicole Good. The video was crystal clear. And for the Trump regime to say Renee Nicole Good was a domestic terrorist who weaponized her vehicle. And they've defamed her postumously in such heinous heinous ways. They said that she's a lunatic woman, that she's a crazy lady. I mean, they threw everything, the misogynistic, the lies, the hate at someone who they murdered. We saw her on the video say, "I'm not mad at you, bro." She was doing a threepoint turn in order to get out because they were telling her to get out. She was not running over the officer, the the Ice Gestapo. I should not call these people officers. I apologize. is holding up a phone, videotaping it with a gun in his hand, shooting her in the face three times.

And I'm not going to play the clip, but over the weekend, Christine was smirking when she was showed a video by Jake Tapper where after she was murdered, the ice guy, Jonathan Ross, says, "Fucking bitch." And then Tapper goes to Gnome, "So was that the ICE officer or was that the ICE agent saying that?" And she goes, "Yeah, I think so." And she smirks. They these are a group of sick evil people. Evil at their core. Evil. You know, my neighbor who watches the Might is Touch podcast, I've said this before, pulled me aside, saw me walking my dog and said, "It really connected when you called the regime evil because that's what they are." I'm like, "Yeah, no, they are. I mean, they're they're bad people who want to use their existence on this planet to do bad things.

Each one of these sickos is sicker than the next, right? Whether it's a Christy gnome or a Pete Hegsith. By the way, Senator Mark Kelly sued Pete Hegsith because Hegsith, this sicko who's been engaged in war crimes and crimes against humanity, demoted Mark Kelly, a decorated veteran and astronaut. So Mark Kelly filed a federal lawsuit uh at the same time Minnesota filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security. But all of these sickos, the the Steven Miller, the Caroline Levit, that Trisha Mclofflin from DHS, RFK Jr. who spent the weekend attacking health care in Germany. Like what are you doing attacking the health care system of Germany? And the Germans were like, "Who who are you? Shut up. Are you doing this?" You know, a guy who is so incredibly unhealthy. You can see how unhealthy he is. It drips through his pores when he's out there speaking, you know. Then we learned about all the

other grotesque I won't even go there with the just the RFK is disgusting. I'll just We all know that. So, as we would say in the law, so stipulated. There's there's one more moment I wanted to talk about though at the at the CBS Golden Globe things though when you had like Mark Ruffalo was being interviewed by a CBS uh guy from whatever the show extra one of these one of these stupid shows and the guy the guy the host of the show was like Mark it's great to see you man the drinks are flowing everyone is a buzzing you're having a great time walk us through what it means to be partying with so many celebrities here this evening. That was the framing of the question. Like lunatic question, right?

CBS, see the BS. And Ruffalo responded, great. He's like, well, I would like to say that I'm happy, but we have a outofc control authoritarian regime murdered Renee Nicole Good and who's out there terrorizing our communities. That's what we have happening right now. So, I'm not really thinking about the drinks a flowing, the parties that are happening, the celebrity glitz and glamour. I'm thinking about the people. And it's so important that we center our coverage in the people. The people need to have their voice heard. That's what we hope to accomplish at this network to tell the stories from the people. I saw this on Tik Tok and Brett and Jordy, you may have seen this so well in Midas Mighty. There was someone who did this great Tik Tok talking about they go, "I just don't understand how the MAGA followers don't realize that they're the bad guy in every one of the superhero books they grew up with, any of the

stories that they grew up with, any of the the movies, they have an arc of good guys and bad guy like and and and and this lady, she's incredible on on the TikTok back and she's just like, "So, I'm If your moral compass is so warped that you cheer on ICE terrorizing this, I can't interact with you. I just can't. I I I can't be friends with you. I can't pretend it's okay. It ain't It ain't okay." So, we'll be right back after our last quick break of the show. When we come back, I want to talk about Trump going after Jerome Powell and the sharp response we've seen, including even from Republicans. I want to talk about the Trump DOJ also firing the number two in the Eastern District of Virginia, a guy by the name of McBride, because they're still trying to find people to go after Comey and nobody wants to lose their license other than Lindsay Halligan, apparently. She's like, "Put me in coach

even though I'm not the lawyer. Even though I'm not the real prosecutor of the Eastern District of Virginia, I'll I'll keep saying I am. Donald Trump posting more about tariffs again. If you do business with Iran, you get a 25% tariff right now. What does it even mean? What does it even mean? What you the policy via social media post, right? Or Donald Trump posting. I hereby decree that on January 20th I will be capping credit card fees at 10%. I will make such an announcement on January 20th. Okay. You going to make a law because that's how you have to do it. So what happens when the credit card companies don't do it? They'll do it. No they won't. No they won't. Just like your fake Doge dividend checks, your fake tariff rebate checks. It's all BS. his view of affordability is just gonna lie about it. He's gonna say, "I've decreed that Microsoft lower its data center costs." So ordered. That's what he

posted today. We just Okay. Well, what are you going to do? A law? Are you going to do a law capping credit card? Are you going to go about it that way? Because I'll tell you what we could do to help affordability right here, right now. Extend the Affordable Care Act tax subsidies. Don't let those expire because right now people's health care costs are skyrocketing right now because no one can afford health care without the subsidies. But no, Donald Trump wants to subsidize the oil companies in Venezuela when the only person who was right. I give him credit. It's the last time I'll give credit to an oil exec on the Dutch podcast, Mr. Exxon. Because that's how Donald Trump was referring to the different execs. There was Mr.

Chevron and Mr. Exxon. Mr. Exxon said it is uninvestable to be in Venezuela right now. He was right. How could you invest in there? They've got gangs going around kidnapping Americans or people who have any sympathy with America. That's what's happening. The State Department said, "Evacuate now if you're America or if you have any sympathies to America. You have to hide right now from the regime that Trump has hoisted up." By the way, this is why I was so clear on our episode immediately following the US invasion of Venezuela to say yes, I'm of course I think everybody is happy to see Maduro out, but the regime is still in charge. So, I am happy to see that people are happy that Maduro was gone and I understand how much this means for Venezuelans. They need to be very careful right now because they are not out of the clear. They are under the same regime, just a different leader.

And Donald Trump does not care about their safety. He does not care about their security. He does not care about democracy or their freedom. He just wants to extract the resources from the country. And he's okay to make these evil deals with evil people in order to do that and keep these people oppressed. And sure enough, these people now are in as much danger as they have ever been in. Any sort of celebration, any sort of disscent from that government right now is being suppressed. Then you have the uh the governments telling, you know, people to get the hell out of there because these collectivos are going around and they are harassing people and rounding people up. That's the reality of what's happening right now. That's the destabilization that we're seeing in Venezuela, just like we've seen in all of these other countries that the US has tried to do similar things in in the past. It's the exact reason why we've

warned against this and why when everybody's like, "Oh, so you're not happy that Maduro's out?" Of course, everyone's happy that Maduro is out, but they are still at risk and things are now as bad as they have ever been in that country. We need to be clear about these things and understand that Donald Trump is a fraud and this is yet another aspect of the fraud that he's perpetrating, not just on the United States of America, but on Venezuela and the entire world. It's scam after scam after scam. And if you don't believe me, I've got a Trump phone to sell you.

We'll be right back after our last quick break of the show. A reminder, our network is expanding. You see it for yourself. You see our DC bureau. You see the partnerships that we're working on right now with on the ground reporting. You see the growth in our coverage. And I think the first 12 days of this month, there's been massive expansion. We want to keep that going. So, if you can become a member of our YouTube page right now and gift as many memberships as you can, don't worry if you can't do it, but if you can, that's a major help.

The other thing you can do is go to midasplus.com, meid-plus.com. That's our Substack, and subscribe there. Let's take our last quick break of the show. We've got a lot to cover when we get back. Ever wake up sweaty, freezing, or just uncomfortable? The temperature in your bedroom can make or break your sleep. That's why I switched to Miracle Made sheets. They're inspired by NASA technology and use Silver Infused's temperature regulating fabric to help you sleep perfectly all night long. Miracle Made sheets feel just as good, if not better, than sheets you'd find at a five-star hotel, but without the steep price tag. Smooth, breathable, and ridiculously comfortable. Thanks to their antibacterial silver technology, Miracle Made sheets stay cleaner and fresher up to three times longer than regular sheets. That means fewer odors, fewer wash cycles, and way less laundry.

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Shout out to our sponsors. Links in description of both the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. If there's an exit survey, let them know we sent you. Benji, where you next? You know, you look at Donald Trump's post from a few hours ago where he just says something which in theory I guess sounds good, but without any thinking, planning. So he goes effective immediately. Any country doing business with Iran will pay a tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America. This order is final and conclusive. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Now, within seconds of that post, our editor-inchief, Ron Philipsky, responded right away. So, is Trump going to terminate his personal business deals with the UAE worth a total of $500 million? And I think it's probably worth more than that. It's probably in the billions. They are Iran's second largest

trading partner. What about the advanced chips that we just agreed to sell them? Are we still selling them a $14 billion uh Boeing package of 787s? So, what are we uh doing there? Um also, as Ron writes, so a new 25% tariff on China and India effective immediately. When do these new tariffs start getting collected? this is on all the goods from those countries immediately. What about the limited trade deal we just made with China? Oh, that's over now. Or is this just more BS? Because China trades with Iran, right? And India trades with Iran.

So we're doing another 25% tariff on top of that, you know, and ultimately the courts, the market at this point, large corporations, they go, you know, this is just what he says. He just says these things and they almost discount his craziness relative to his backing out of the threats and they figure we'll just get through this at some point in time. That doesn't that's that's not always going to hold. That's uh assuming a lot. And I mean, I I've given this example with Trump's cover up of the Epstein files, and I'll I'll address it here because I don't want to ever not do an episode where I don't mention that the government right now is covering up the largest child sex trafficking ring in the world history right now. Blatantly covering up that the DOJ is now a racketeering criminal enterprise involved in the cover up of sex trafficking. It's just a fact. You call them a regime because that's a fact. You

call them terrorists because that's a fact. And you call up the fact that they are engaged in a racketeering enterprise to cover up a sex trafficker. Fact. Fact. Fact. Fact. F fact fact. F fact fact. It's not hyperbolic. Right. I saw I'll get back to Ebony in a moment. saw when the mayor of Minneapolis was being interviewed, all these corporate media were like, "But do you bear responsibility for saying that the that what took place with Renee Nicole Good was a reckless murder by an outofcontrol ICE officer." And then the mayor would be like, I mean, I said that it was caused by a reckless, outofc control ICE officer because we saw the video and that's what happened and you're upset that I used the f-word when there are people getting killed by this regime. Just wanted to point that out. But just think about it like this. Donald Trump has said that Epstein was a hoax and that the FBI was

involved in this hoax and James Comey was involved in the hoax and all of these people were involved in the hoax and Moren Comey who was the lead prosecutor, her dad's James Comey and they were in on a hoax. In any normal time, imagine former President Obama said, "I've got inside information about a criminal case. I know from the FBI that what took place at that trial is a hoax. 100% of the time that criminal defendant would cite the president of the United States words because words should have meaning and the president's words should be the most meaningful, not the least meaningful. and that criminal defendant would get a new trial if the president of the United States say that they found actual fraud or a hoax. Now, it's a good thing that Gileain Maxwell will almost certainly not get a new trial, but the way she won't is that ultimately the DOJ will write in their paperwork to the judge. Yeah, you can't really He didn't

really mean it like that. That's not what he meant. He meant it this way. And ultimately, the federal judges will not value Donald Trump's words. Not because they're appointed by Democrats, because this is equal for Republican judges and Democrat judges, because his words don't have meaning. the president of the United States words don't have meaning or have such ambiguity or are so clouded in this trolling nonsense that people don't and and the reality is though is that you can't discount it though either and when he's out there saying he's going to invade Greenland and he wants to acquire it and He compares Greenland to Venezuela and Cuba.

There's only a certain amount of time where you could be like, "That's just Trump being Trump. He says these things." No. No. And here's the thing, like Trump saying he's going to tariff any country that does business. So, are you tariffing China? Right? If if if your words are meaningful, that should happen right away. and there should be tariffs against United Arab Emirates and you should cancel your deals, your family deals and America's deals and all the semiconductor chip deals or or is this just a bogus post the same way as post about capping credit card interest at 10%. Just a lie. There's no law. It's not going to be enforced. It ain't happening. Doge dividend checks. Yeah, right. Doge increased federal spending didn't decrease federal spending. The tariff rebate checks. Oh, the way we'll the way we'll change health care is we'll give people the money and then they can negotiate themselves with the

insurance companies. Brett and Jordy, it's just all BS after BS. And you know, did you see it was Senator Marshall, right, Brett? Senator Marshall, Republican who went on some of the shows, and he was asked about Donald Trump's threats to criminally prosecute Powell, and they go, I don't think he really meant that. He was trolling. That was a that was one big troll. Do we have that clip?

Yeah, let me let me look for that clip. The whole trolling argument to me like really is

so frustrating because you could write off anything the guy says as trolling, you know, and at what point do you not realize that there may be an element of trolling to the things that Donald Trump does, but that there's also a tangible effect and impact of Donald Trump's words and actions on people that go far beyond trolling and are affecting people's lives in an incredibly negative way every single day. Um I I'll keep looking for the clip, but it's we got it somewhere. Here it is. Let me let me let me play this.

Is there really a reason for an investigation? Because, you know, a lot of people are looking at this and saying, "Well, wait a second. We know President Trump does not like J. Powell and we know that he's calling him stupid and that he hasn't cut rates fast enough." So, is this political or did Jay Powell break the law and mislead or lie to the Senate Banking Committee? And you say,

"Well, Maria, we'll let the let the system play through here." Uh, I think there's other issues that we should be focused on. I think this is the president throwing out one more uh maybe he's even almost trolling here as well. We got bigger issues to to go after than this one, though.

I mean, he's sending criminal subpoenas to the Federal Reserve and to Jerome Powell, and he's saying he wants them criminally prosecuted. Jerome Powell has to hire a lawyer now. Jerome Powell now has to kind of enter the political arena in a way that he never does because he plays everything very by the book and really just you know views his job as what it is as doing what's best for the economy. You have Donald Trump doing this which has could have catastrophic effects on the economy I guess a if people took him seriously and if you were to actually move forward with this.

We've seen the impacts of what happens in tinpot dictatorships throughout the world when they get rid of their person who's in charge of monetary policy and put in a lackey in order to artificially lower interest rates. Spoiler alert, it doesn't end well. You think inflation was bad a few years ago, you ain't got [ __ ] on that inflation when you're going to see 30%, 40%, 60%, 80% inflation if Donald Trump does something like that. It is completely reckless. And this trolling argument is just another way that they try to get out of and squirm out of actually having to answer the questions as to what Donald Trump is doing. And what I think the Trump administration is doing right now, this Department of Justice, personally, I believe that it is criminal. I believe what the department I believe the Department of Justice right now is a criminal entity. I believe they are engaging in crimes every single day. Of

course, they're not going to prosecute themselves. That's not going to happen. But I do believe that the people in this administration, in this Department of Justice, can be held criminally liable and can be criminally prosecuted by future administrations. I think over the Epstein files, absolutely what we're seeing here, less than 1% of the Epstein files have been released. All of them were supposed to be released in December. Every last one, less than 1% have been released. And they keep stonewalling and they keep making up excuses as to why the files aren't coming. They are clearly covering up there for Donald Trump and all of these [ __ ] prosecutions, whether it's against Leticia James or James Comey or Jerome Powell. I think Lisa Mcowsky actually used the right word, Republican Senator Lisa Mowski, when she said what I believe the Department of Justice is engaged in right now is coercion. And I

completely agree. I think this is criminal coercion. She says that Congress needs to investigate the Department of Justice. I don't think we're going to see this Congress investigate the Department of Justice anytime soon. Uh if Congress flips in the coming elections, I think you will see Democrats start those investigations. But what we really need down the road are criminal investigations uh by a future Department of Justice and prosecutions against these officials because we need to set an example that none of this could ever happen again. And I'm not here to advocate for any particular political party or candidate. But I will tell you that any candidate out there that does promise to go after these people in no uncertain terms and prosecute them and hold them accountable for all of the crimes that they committed, for all the wrongs that they have done, for all the abuse that they have inflicted on the

American people. That will be the individual who gets my vote personally. Greg, where is your sense of humor? He is just simply trolling. I know we played that clip a little bit ago, but but uh what is that shtick Maria even does on Fox? I I don't watch her program, so I I very rarely see that. But that was like just comical in that delivery, but it's scary in the sense of what a grip that has on the American people. And then going back to pal here when what I really respect and it's something that we say here a lot is you have to control the narrative and you have to dictate the narrative especially when your narrative is in truth is in fact when the narrative is on your side you have to be willing to just get in front of a camera and lay it out for the American people of what is going on. So when the criminal investigation was announced to the pal, what I really appreciated with him is that he jumped

in front of a camera right away and got a video out right away so he can in very clear terms explain why it was all BS. And and that's the type of messaging that really breaks through there is before you can even let Fox News initiate the talking points to to the MAGA base before Elon could could hype up all of these people on X and and whatnot, you have to get out there and control the damn narrative, especially when the facts, the truth, and and just the American people are on your side. So, shout out to

Great point. I want to leave us with with this, right? Contrast everything we showed you with what's happening in New York City right now. And I'm specifically though talking about with Mayor Mamdani and within the first eight days and I had Mayor Mdani on where I interviewed him on day eight when he and Governor Hokll announced a step closer to universal child care and they were extending child care to hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers right away. And mom Donnie got that commitment from Governor Hokll, which no one thought would be possible for a long time. It happened in eight days.

And every day you see Mayor Mum Donnie out there with the people standing side by side with New Yorkers fighting for them. Does that mean he's going to be perfect? No. Does it mean that he'll never make mistakes? Of course not. Does it mean he'll accomplish everything? No. But he set an ambitious agenda and he centered what he's doing around the people, not for the oligarchs and the bullies. And I'll just show you him how he was greeted earlier today. And this is a testament to how people in New York feel about him when you actually feel respect for a leader, a political leader, because they're fighting for you. Watch.

Heat. Heat. powerful. For the audio listeners, that was not a a rock concert. That was not a Taylor Swift concert with the applause. That was Mayor Mamdani walking the streets of New York and joining the picket line with nurses. And I think you could even just set aside all political views, right? M maybe you support the strike that the nurses are doing. Maybe you don't support the strike. But it's hard not to look at that and see that this is somebody who's actually doing things for the people and that the people are responding in a positive reason. These are much different than the crowds that you see at Trump rallies that are so full of vitriol and hate and anger. It's just the complete opposite of that. There's a lightness there, right? There is a happiness there.

There's a passion. There's an emotion and and a and a positive emotion that is such like an antidote to the toxic polluted political environment that we have today. And Ben, that's why I love that we're kind of ending uh with with that clip kind of right there because it really shows you what's possible, right? When you set aside all the BS, when you set aside the hate, when you set aside the vitriol, and you actually just focus on how are we going to help people, what do the people want and what are people looking for out of leaders? And people are looking for leaders who are going to serve them. And there are always going to be those politicians out there and those political figures out there who try to prey upon your hate, who try to make you fearful, who try to make you scared, who try to scapegoat and say your problems are all because of the Jews or the Somali or this group or that

group, the gays. You saw Donald Trump say something uh today that the he was bashing the civil rights movement and Donald Trump said, "Yeah, the civil rights movement was actually way too mean to white people. It was actually a disgrace for what they did to white people during the civil rights movement. Trump said earlier today, you'll see the politicians who do that and that hate is a inc is an incredibly potent force. And you've seen how it's been able to affect our country and this world and countries throughout history and take people into a very dark place. But then you see images like that of M Donnie walking through New York City and you see the excitement, you see the positivity and and you remember the feeling that people felt during the Obama administration and you remember that hope is an equally potent if not more potent uh emotion feeling than hate can ever be. And so I think we need to continue to work to

inspire each other and not be just so sucked in by all the hatred that's out there. How can we elevate each other? How can we continue to spread hope and positivity and in doing so hold the people who spread that hate, spread that vitriol and continue to attack and assault the American people every day? Hold those people to account. Covered a lot on this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. I want to thank each and every one of you for fighting for our democracy each and every day, for holding the line, for sharing the videos that we put out there to document what's taking place. We try to just give you the receipts, the facts. Occasionally, I'll get pretty angry and worked up on some of these videos, but I try to keep a steady voice. Sometimes with these images, it's not all not all that easy.

Um but we appreciate the work that you do um as part of this community, for this country, for the world, for democracy, for empathy, for love, for hope. And I want to thank everybody who is a member of this YouTube channel. You click that join button, gift memberships to as many people as you can. That helps grow this network. And another thing you can do right now is just subscribe to our Substack. There's a lot of great member features that you can access. There's exclusive podcasts for our members. There's additional access to some of the writeups by our editor-in chief, Ron Philipski. But most importantly, it helps expand our network and do the things like build out a DC bureau and help us make these partnerships and and grow in ways that are I think you're already seeing massive growth internationally and here in the United States. hired a lot more people and that's and that's and we

we've increased our capabilities and that's thanks to you. So, we're grateful for you. So, go to midasplus.com or become a member andor become a member of our YouTube page right here. So, thank you all very much. My doggies are saying in the background dogs are calling. They're saying wrap it up.

Saying it's time to go as well. It's like the Oscars music, you know, when you're talking too long. They're like wrap it up.

Wrap Tao and Chao are saying wrap it up. Wrap it up, Ben. I will. Thank you everybody from the bottom of my heart. We appreciate you. Jordy takes us up. Shout out to the mightest mighty.

Standing strong against the fascist. We sing our song. We will get it right. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our Substack at midasplus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Philipki, add free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at midasplus.com.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "LIVE: MeidasTouch RESPONDS to MAJOR BREAKING NEWS - 1/12/26"?

Ben Meiselas (Host), Jordy Meiselas (Host), Brett Meiselas (Host).

What is "LIVE: MeidasTouch RESPONDS to MAJOR BREAKING NEWS - 1/12/26" about?

The content addresses the escalating crisis in Minnesota, where the Trump administration has deployed 1,000 ICE and Border Patrol agents amidst accusations of an invasion, prompting the state and Twin Cities to file a federal lawsuit. Additionally, it discusses Trump's threats to invade Greenland, provoking military responses from European nations, and highlights the brutal crackdown on dissent…

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

4 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including CBS, ICE, US Federal Reserve, Thom Tillis. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "LIVE: MeidasTouch RESPONDS to MAJOR BREAKING NEWS - 1/12/26"?

The episode runs 1 h 26 min; the transcript is about 14,235 words in 111 timestamped sections.

More from MeidasTouch

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 January 24, 2026.