Transcript

LIVE: Meiselas and Cohen GO LIVE on BREAKING NEWS - 12/18/2025

From MeidasTouch · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 58 min · 9,053 words · 103 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "LIVE: Meiselas and Cohen GO LIVE on BREAKING NEWS - 12/18/2025", an episode of MeidasTouch published December 18, 2025 (58 min, about 9,053 words). It mentions 28 people, works and ideas, including Kennedy Center, 1776 warrior dividend, Senator Richard Blumenthal, Political Beatdown, Jason Leopold.

What this episode is about

The discussion centers on the imminent release of the Epstein files, with Donald Trump's administration allegedly facilitating and overseeing the redaction process involving national security personnel from the DOJ and FBI. The hosts highlight unusual resistance among lawyers to participate in this process, contrasting it with previous reports of extensive staff involvement in handling these sensitive documents.

Key takeaways

  • Over 1,000 lawyers scrutinize Epstein files; redaction frenzy leaves transparency feeling like a Houdini act.
  • Epstein-Trump connection papers might reveal names, but GOP faces stay mysteriously invisible.
  • With documents mass-redacted, DOJ claims compliance; transparency feels like a guessing game.
  • Epstein files' release: more theater than transparency, with redactions stealing the spotlight.
  • Trump-Epstein phone antics in NYT: unsettling mix of grooming and harassment with uncomfortable undertones.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Ben Marcelis, Political Beatdown
  2. – 10:00: Attorney General of the United States
  3. – 20:00: ShamWow
  4. – 35:00: Attorney General of the United States
  5. – 40:00: True Classic, Mayulpa (audio podcast), The Michael Cohen Show
  6. – 45:00: Political Beatdown
  7. – 55:00: Kennedy Center, Flash Gordon, Kennedy family, Secretary of Defense
  8. – 57:30: Kennedy Center, Maya Audio, Political Beatdown, The Michael Cohen Show

Notable quotes from "LIVE: Meiselas and Cohen GO LIVE on BREAKING NEWS - 12/18/2025"

  • Welcome to Political Beatdown. I'm Ben Marcelis, joined by Michael Cohen. We've got a lot to discuss. We are less than 24 hours away from talking about Donald Trump covering up the release of the.
    about Political Beatdown · at
  • Interruption, breaking news coming from the White House, the president of the United States. And people what the f? Yeah. And people are thinking, people are thinking, okay, get ready. Get ready for this, Jeremy. Right. So people are.
    about Attorney General of the United States · at
  • Perhaps dealt with and so here but just even you know it's funny I've given examples of the Shamwow guy and people you remember the Shamwow guy he's like joking I bought several of them you bought the Shamwow it's a shammy.
    about ShamWow · at
  • It's personally offended by your existence. Well, that used to be my entire wardrobe until I switched to true classic. these guys had one mission in mind. Premium comfortable…
    about True Classic · at
  • Finally, let's talk about this last thing. Donald Trump renaming the Kennedy Center unlawfully doesn't have the right to do this to the Trump Kennedy Center.
    about Kennedy Center · at
  • And Congress didn't and Congress didn't approve this. And so it's just like when Trump calls the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of War, the War Department right now, like…
    about Secretary of Defense · at
  • Cohen show. Subscribe to his Substack at Michael Cohen Substack. Subscribe to the Maya Audio podcast. Subscribe here on the Midas Touch YouTube channel as well.
    about Maya Audio · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Senator Richard Blumenthal — Person · 4 mentions
  • Jason Leopold — Person · 3 mentions
  • Senator Ben Ray Luján — Person · 2 mentions
  • Ben Marcelis — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Welcome to Political Beatdown. I'm Ben Marcelis, joined by Michael Cohen. We've got a lot to discuss. We are less than 24 hours away from talking about Donald Trump covering up the release of the.
  • Flash Gordon — Person · 1 mention · first at
    The Olympics and sprinting and he sprints the hell out of DC faster, right, than Flash Gordon. this is simply out of control. Anytime that something is coming up that they…
  • Susie White — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Name on the Kennedy Center. So Trump has his own board of lackeyis. It's like Pam Bondi's on there and Susie White. It's like literally his It's like his crew, right? Dan…
  • Chris Jose — Person · 1 mention
  • Dan Scavino — Person · 1 mention
  • Greg Bovino — Person · 1 mention
  • Harry Enten — Person · 1 mention
  • Joyce Beatty — Person · 1 mention
  • Pam Hemphill — Person · 1 mention

Companies & orgs

  • Kennedy Center — Company · 5 mentions · first at
  • Political Beatdown — Company · 3 mentions · first at
  • The Michael Cohen Show — Company · 2 mentions · first at
    Audio podcast. That's Michael Cohen's audio podcast. Subscribe to his YouTube channel at the Michael Cohen show.
  • U.S. Border Patrol — Company · 2 mentions
  • Mayulpa (audio podcast) — Company · 1 mention · first at
    We'll be right back to find out for sure. Reminder, subscribe to the Mayulpa audio podcast. That's Michael Cohen's audio podcast. Subscribe to his YouTube channel at the Michael Cohen show.
  • Kennedy family — Company · 1 mention · first at
    The Kennedy family is just other than I guess RFK. I mean they're horrified by this. I mean the idea of this naming was for a fallen president who contributed to the arts for Donald Trump not.
  • Secretary of Defense — Company · 1 mention · first at
  • War Department — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Approve this. And so it's just like when Trump calls the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of War, the War Department right now, like it's an unlawful act, but with MAGA in…
  • Maya Audio — Company · 1 mention · first at
  • Ipsos — Company · 1 mention

Products & tech

Concepts & topics

Sponsors

Full transcript with timestamps

Welcome to Political Beatdown. I'm Ben Marcelis, joined by Michael Cohen. We've got a lot to discuss. We are less than 24 hours away from talking about Donald Trump covering up the release of the Epstein files. The law requires that those files be turned over tomorrow. From what we're hearing, uh, Trump has the entire national security team at the DOJ and FBI working through redactions on the Epstein files right now. I'm hearing and CNN reported as well that there were a number of national security lawyers who are just refusing to even be involved in this. They've like outright said, "I'm not touching this. I'm not being involved in this." Uh, but others are involved in it. It's pretty unusual that the national security team is involved, but I think there's nobody else who's agreeing to uh to do this work. So, we'll we'll focus on that. The New York Times,

which is weird, Ben, right? Because what didn't early on there was allegedly a thousand FBI agents combing through these documents,

right? So, it's a great point, right? Originally back in late February, March specifically, you had a thousand

a thousand. And we know that number because there was a foyer request that was made by Bloomberg and your buddy Leupold did a great job.

Jason Leupold, great reporter. Yeah. Link with him. I want to say what's up to I I stuff all the time. I'd love to say what's up to that guy.

I You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna put the three of us on a phone call later tonight.

Yeah. because you know he's got especially I'm so sorry because I interrupted you while you were showing those clips. I think they're very very uh important those um those posts.

Yeah, those po you know the Leopold got the foyer request. He put out the foyer request. He got the info and what it showed was again one week in March there was a thousand overtime hours in in one week alone. And I mean there were yeah to your point a thousand DOJ FBI lawyers back then. So now there's another 1,000 lawyers working on redactions now in addition to the redactions back then. So I think what we're going to get Cohen is a bunch of redacted documents. I think they turn over basically what the estate turned over. There's 18,000 documents that the estates already turned over, right? So they're going to be like, "See, we've turned over. It has Trump stuff in it." Well, we already got that from the estate. all the other DOJ stuff I think is gonna have, you know, all these redact.

Can I Can I jump in on that because um I agree with you. Certainly there's going to be quite a bit of redundancy uh in what gets released tomorrow um from the Epstein estate to what is being released from the FBI, from uh our attorney general as well. But there's going to be more than just what was released by the Epstein estate. But everything that gets released tomorrow, rest assured, is going to be curated so that it stays away from anyone who is Republican or who has any connection at all to the White House. Um, so there will be individuals who have no connection whatsoever. That information will come out also most probably highly redacted, but it will be there. Um, but I don't think it's going to just be solely the same documents. Uh, that wouldn't be a smart move for them. They wouldn't then be able to say, "We are doing everything in our power to ensure that we comply with law and not infringe

upon people's rights and so on," as if they really care. But that's going to be the argument. In fact, what we've already done is we've now released documents that have never been seen before. um so and so and so and so, especially if it's going to be, for example, um this guy from the New York Times or it's going to be um a Democrat. There's no doubt in my mind those documents will be uh forthcoming tomorrow.

Yeah, there will be a lot of other people who I think will will see their names on it, right? The Trump ones, the people close to Trump, those will likely continue to be covered up. They'll release some of the ones that have been produced and they may dribble out his name here or there because they're going to be like, "See, we've got his name in there." Well, duh. So, why would we show you that one? Obviously, we've released everything. But this is going to be an ongoing task. Like, you have to always realize that everything Trump does, you know, is always going to have that uh that element to it. You know, the New York Times wrote a real big expose this morning also where they had meticulous sourcing like Epstein's old assistant from the 1990s talking about how Epstein would put Donald Trump on speaker phone and they would brag about like women's pubic hair and like and the intent this

assistant believed was to make her uncomfortable almost like a form of harassment that Epstein would put her through by putting Trump on speakerphone while he bragged about the way the New York Times,

you know, you know, Ben, not not not harassment. Not harassment, my brother. I've heard people say it's a form of grooming. I I actually it's a great it's a great perspective those thoughts is that you hear that you keep showing the people that you create that environment you normalize that environment and then you bring the it's it's it's a it's a certainly a sick and disgusting thing but you're absolutely right that that's the environment that Epstein created and then of course there are you know the photos of Epstein um you know there's that one disgusting photo with a group of like their faces were redacted, but those people looked like very young girls in the photo looking like they're giving him, you know, massages or or doing something with his nails or or or or something like that, you know. But this was, you know, this was Trump's world in the 1990s. I mean, this was Epste was his guy. People were saying

they were best buds. They were best friends. So much so that Epstein said that he you know to to people at that time that he had a standing before whatever went down 2004 2005 2006 2007 that period that he had a place that he could always stay at Mara Lago and that they were best friends at at the time. So we will keep everybody posted on that. Um, you know, you saw this morning also, you know, let let's talk before this morning. I I should rewind and get your reaction, Cohen, to last night, right? Um, you know, Donald Trump gave a national address. He made all the networks cover it. The network shouldn't have covered it, but they gave him whatever it was, 19 minutes. You know, he, you know, they requested 15 minutes.

They gave him the 19 minutes where afterwards what was trending was like aderall president. You know, we forget sometimes Cohen that a lot of people don't follow the day-to-day happenings of what's going on and they they feel the pain that Trump's causing them. So Trump's favorability has dropped. But Trump interrupts your regularly scheduled programming, right? Your favorite TV show, your sporting event, whatever to do this.

No, Survivor. What are you talking about? There were like 10 million freaking people, you know, watching Survivor at the time. And all of a sudden,

we apologize for this for this uh, you know, for this uh, you know, unscheduled interruption, you know, um, breaking news coming from the White House, the president of the United States. And people like, what the f? Yeah. And people are thinking, people are thinking, okay, get ready. Get ready for this, Jeremy. Right. So people are thinking, so people, okay, you know, are we going to war? Um, uh, is there some sort of, you know, national crisis? Why are we being addressed as a nation? So Trump steps up and he goes, "My favorite word is tariffs. Tariffs.

Tariffs. Tariffs." Here, play the clip. Much of this success has been accomplished by tariffs. my favorite word, tariffs, which for many decades have been used successfully by other countries against us, but not anymore. You know, imagine imagine you're there to watch your favorite show.

You know, I watch your favorite show and then boom, that goes on, right? Could you imagine? So I sent of course to you know to um the boys over there uh for consideration on my um my substack of today which I just thought was absolut friends of mine who receive and read my morning posts. Stop yelling at us. My buddy Kevin turned around and he wrote to me he's a journalist. He's actually um on television as well as a a news journalist. He turned around. He goes, "It was exactly what I was thinking last night when I was watching Survivor that got interrupted by, you know, by this unscheduled programming interruption."

18 minutes of Trump shouting, inventing numbers and economic fantasy, all while Americans keep paying higher bills, and wondering why the president is yelling at them, right? You tuned in to watch Survivor and you became a nonconsenting participant of the reality show.

I call it well well in many ways though, you know, we've all been now forced to endure in a non-consensual manner basically being the extras in Donald Trump's deranged reality show. And he's turned the United States into the Trump properties, into Mara Lago, into his failed businesses, into his deranged psychopathic, you know, perspective. And the institutions bent, a lot of them, some held a little, but the institutions bent. Corporate leaders failed us. As we reflect on this year, Cohen, right? I mean, we're at that time where we reflect on the year, but the people stood together. I mean, the most incredible thing about what's happened this year is that the people were like, "Nah, f this. F this guy. We ain't do we ain't doing this." As Americans, you know, that's something that I think is an important thing. But, you know, you saw last night when he was giving this speech, you know, everything with this

guy is a scam. you know, going back to you're all forced to endure living in his scammy world before, you know, one in which Cohen, you had to testify against him in a criminal case um and a civil case and testified nine times or whatever the number was on

seven times seven times in Congress. And so yesterday, one of the things that he's announcing because he knows people are suffering. So he's like, "What can I do? What can I do?" He's like, "Here's what I'm going to do. They're going to love me for this one. 1776. That's a good brand. That's a good brand. 1776. I'm going to give the military. Everyone's worried about a war. I'm going to I'm going to give them $1,776 to 1450 members of the armed services. I'm going to give them a war dividend. A warrior dividend is what he calls. I think you mean I think you mean 1,450,000 veterans. Uh, 1450. It's a,400 1,450,000.

I mean, let me let me be clear. Please put that back up a second, Jeremy, because Ben and I are not letting this go. More than $2.9 billion is now going, right? which by the way has already been allocated for housing allowances for the troops. He's not this is not newly created money that he tries to say that has been created by tariffs. And so first and foremost, I'm going to repeat it like I say every time. Tariffs are taxes and consumers pay tariffs. Meaning, even if there is money that's sitting somewhere in a tariff coffer, it's an extra tax on you and I. We all see it in the stores. Let's stop bullshitting about that one. But more importantly, this requisition of the 1776 warrior distribution, all right, um, is coming from housing allocation. So, what happens when these folks end up needing money, right, from their housing allowances that have been already approved by Congress and giving

it to them as a bonus. So, it looks like it's coming from him. Now, if I can turn around and say one more thing here, Ben, I'm going to let you read it, but before I let you start, I want people to know one thing that 1776 is not tax-free money. It is taxable money. So they don't get even 1776. If you are a veteran from the city and state of New York where we have federal, state, and city, you're paying on that money somewhere in the ballpark of about 40% on it. So you could knock off another say $400 up. So your 1776 is more like 1376.

But and Congress in a bipartisan way did their job. They very rarely work together in a bipartisan way, right? But they recognized with this with these funds that they wanted to basically put this aside as a way to purely deal with the housing crisis and the fact that our service members should be making sure that they get great housing, right? We all want them to make sure they do and that this could help make their housing affordable. And there were other mechanisms to try to make service members housing affordable. Now there's lots of studies that are done on this too, right? And this is not just like Congress saying 2.9 billion, throw it there. No. But they recognize also and studies show that if you just gave a check to an 18-year-old or 19year-old newly enlisted soldier, right, they may and I'm not I'm not trying to disparrage them. They may they may go out and spend it on gifts for themselves on a car, at

a bar, with friends, partying, whatever. It's a very stressful gig that they have. So, Congress was saying, "We need to just make sure that this is safeguarded to focus on their housing because we don't want to be in a position where our service members then come back to us and say, we don't have housing or we don't have it in an affordable way." So, Trump's like, "Yeah, I'm going to snatch that. I'm going to take that and then I'm going to just It's reckless. It's it's it's irresponsible. it will ultimately potentially force that funding to be replenished and and perhaps dealt with and and and so here but just even you know it's funny I've given examples of the Shamwow guy and people you remember the Shamwow guy he's like

joking I I bought several of them you bought the Shamwow it's a shammy it's a wow it's a Shamwow you know that guy growing up you know when I was in college I would see the Shamwow advertisement everywhere And I was like, Trump's like the Shamwow guy. The funny thing is Shamwow guy is a MAGA guy. He's a ma and he was running recently for election. I forget in what state, but he's I'm like it's just funny that that guy became a MAGA guy and and there's weird things about that guy also, but I won't get into that. But he became a MAGA guy. So watch as Trump talks about 1776. He's the Shamwow guy here. Watch it. because of tariffs along with the just passed one big beautiful bill.

Tonight I am also proud to announce that more than 1,450,000 think of this 1,450,000 military service members will receive a special we call warrior dividend before Christmas. A warrior dividend in honor of our nation's founding in 1776. We are sending every soldier $1,776. Thank

scam. Wow. Scam. Wow. Bring that freaking check. Bring that shammy. All right. It's It's unbelievable. You know, I said in my substack just, you know, this was not a presidential address. It was to those of us that were watching television, it was a hostage video starring facts that were bound, gagged, and shoved into the trunk of a golf cart. Because presidents, they go on prime time when something big happens, something important happens, whether it be war, which by the way,

insiders that are there told me that was supposed to be part of um yesterday's shtick that he was going to declare war on Venezuela. All right. don't think it's out of I wouldn't be shocked if we see it um before certainly before New Year's but maybe even on Christmas but whether it's a war issue whether there's peace whether there's I don't know a dead terrorist Trump literally went prime time because his poll numbers are underwater and sinking fast. 60% 60% of Americans disapprove of how he's handling the economy, my friends. That's not a rounding error. All right? That is a flashing red siren that is screaming, "We don't believe you." And so what does Trump do? He yells louder because that's supposed to scam wow us into believing what he's saying is accurate and true.

Notice what's happening in Venezuela, too. I mean, there's a lot that's happening, but I like to dig beneath the surface about what's happening. You know, Putin reached out. Do you notice the tone change? Even though we're still being very aggressive and Trump is towards Venezuela. One of the things that seems to have happened is Putin and Maduro had a conversation together. Maduro announced publicly that I've had a great conversation with Putin. One of the things that Venezuela is doing after this uh what what does Trump refer to? I think Trump thinks Venezuela is an island because he goes, "We've got it fully surrounded by the Armada and it's a blockade of the sanctionships," which is not really even what what's actually happening. Trump's just saying these words, but we do have a massive, let's be clear, a massive almost unprecedented massive shipping presence or military presence in the area. But Venezuela is

sending its own um navy to escort its tankers right now. And so Venezuela's navy is actually saying to Trump, "Okay, if this is what you want to do, go attack us. This is what you're going to do. We're going to escort our tankers." And so that's happening there, like literally right now as we speak. And while Donald Trump is being I don't want to call it being played by Putin because it's just so obvious what's taking place in in cahoots with whatever language you want to you want to use aiding and abetting. You know Donald Trump said that uh you know at at a press conference today he said Putin's done everything we've asked of him. Putin's done everything right and it's on Ukraine. on Zalinski that they're not the ones agreeing.

That's like the craziest thing. I mean I mean it's the most derange thing possibly to say. At all times Ukraine's agreed to a ceasefire. Ukraine has been invaded and Putin keeps saying the special operation needs to continue. We're not ending you. We would we all of eastern Ukraine all the territorial areas that we deem historically belonging to us must be re must be given back to us for the special operation to be complete.

Yeah. And he also goes on to talk about how Venezuela the reason for much of this it's remember it was initially fentinel that was going to kill every American right those 20 now 23 or 25 uh 18 20 foot aluminum vessels with the two twin outboard Mercury motors they were killing all of America everyone between those and thank decided for him because he's saved us all from overdosing on fentinel, which we all know comes from China through Mexico. All right, here's the craziest part about it. They keep talking about, and I am confused on this, they keep talking about how Venezuela stole land from America, that they have stolen our oil, and that they have stolen from us rare earth minerals.

So, I'm just trying to figure out how did they take land from America? What are they talking about? And how do they how do they legitimately justify the actions that they're taking right now other than of course to say that it is a national security issue, the protection of Americans from this drug epidemic?

Let me give you the answer. So, first let me show the clip where Trump says that they're stealing the land. We have that clip. So, Jeremy, play that one first.

Just a blockade. not going to let anybody going through that shouldn't be going through. You remember they took all of our energy rights. They took all of our oil from not that long ago and we want it back. But they took it. They illegally took it. Who does that sound a lot like? Uh Jeremy, play Putin clip one. Let's play Putin clip one. Uh those European little swine you see. They immediately became involved in these efforts by the former American administration hoping to profit from the collap collapse of our country.

That's from yesterday. Play Putin clip two. What I want to particularly note here what tasks to set in the sphere of military construction including taking into account the dynamics of the situation on the line of combat contact. First of all, the objectives of the special military operation will without any doubt be fully achieved. We would have much preferred to accomplish this and eliminate the fundamental root causes of the conflict through diplomatic negotiations. However, should the should the opposing parties along with their foreign patrons refuse to engage in any substantive dialogue, Russia will then proceed to achieve the liberation of its historical territories through military means. The critical task of establishing and expanding a secure buffer zone will also be systematically addressed and resolved.

Cohen, it's the same exact script. So, it's the same exact script. Now, Putin's pretext denazification of Ukraine with a Jewish leader in Zalinski. And that's what Putin's saying. Denaz.

Yeah. You see, Putin does a lot of the same exact things that Trump does. Yeah. Well, Trump does a lot of things Putin does. Yeah.

All right. You've They both do the exact same thing. It's an authoritarian um ideology. Stalin uh did it. Uh many many um autocrats and dictators have done it. What they do is they pick a tree and then they claim that that tree is the forest. For example, in this specific case, and we all have seen Trump do it a thousand times, right? Where he'll turn around and he'll say like for example, the Russia hoax, it was a hoax, right? But that doesn't mean everything is a hoax. Putin, for example, is talking about the dennazification of Ukraine as if he's standing up for Jews. No. No. It is factually accurate that Ukraine has a history of anti-semitism.

It's it's factually accurate. 1972 1973 there was a mass exodus of Jews from Ukraine based upon anti-semitism. How do I know this? Because my wife and my in-laws along with about a hundred of my friends who are Ukrainianborn all came to the United States at the same time via different routes like my wife first through Italy then Italy to Israel, Israel to the United States. It's factually accurate, but that doesn't mean today that Ukraine is anti-semitic, that it is a Nazi stronghold, that you need Vladimir Putin to wipe out the entire population to denazify. What he's doing is he's using the tree to build an entire forest out of it. All right? It is a it is a act right out of every single authoritarian playbook. And Trump doesn't miss a beat on that either.

Well, he's also, I think, using the tree to bludgeon people into submission to agree that the tree is actually a golden nugget, right? Or whatever until you say what it is, he believes it is and bend reality to his vision. And you know, you talk about, you know, you know, Donald Trump saying this is a hoax or that's a hoax or this or the other thing. I mean, just I want to show you in real time this is Trump's authoritarian mindset. But then I'll show you otherwise potentially good, smart people who exhibit what has been referred to in Nazi times by a famous writer as the benality of evil, who bend to it, who conceded, who tap out, who submit, and then they agree with the narrative of the authoritarian and they become compromised for life because they've now bought into it and they've demeaned themselves despite all their education and everything to that level. So, I'll just give you just an

example. In the past 24, 48 hours, there was a hearing on Capitol Hill that went little notice and it was to confirm new judges that Trump wants to appoint and Trump appointees. So, Democratic Senator Blumenthal asks these people, when you look at these people, like their background's not necessarily ultra maga this or ultra maga that, but they've now shaped their entire world view to Donald Trump's deranged MAGA cult. So, when he asks them, "Was January 6th an attack on the capital building?" Pretty basic question. Was January 6th an attack on the capital? What what is your thought about that? Here though is this is what the authoritarian does. He sees people he sees the weakness of them clobbers them and then they go and watch watch these people just basically say I can't answer that. I don't know. I'm not sure what it is. And then boom in the cult.

It's almost like um watch zombie movies when the zombie bites your neck, right? right? Or when the zombie whatever you're a zombie they got you watch them watch them become zombies right here. Here play this clip.

Was the United States capital attacked on January 6, 2021? And again, Senator, as a sitting judge under rule two of the Missouri Rules of Judicial Ethics, I believe that there are cases pending in front of courts. And so due to pending or impending litigation, I cannot comment on anything of political controversy.

I'm not asking you about a specific individual. Was the capital attack? And again, I do believe that there are cases currently in front of courts. And so as a sitting judge under rule two, I I cannot answer.

Uh Mr. Lee, same answer. And I would add that as an employee of the Department of Justice, I would refer to the Department of Justice's positions and briefs.

Mr. Olson, um, Senator, the the January uh six events um are a matter of of public controversy and and debate on on how to characterize those and I think to that robust

Tell me what your characterization is of that those events. Well, individuals entered the capital and and some of them were were charged and there were cases that arose as a result of those events.

You agree that the capital was attacked? Well, Senator, I the qualitative characterization, I think, of what happened and how it's been referred to by various individuals is is debated. And I think to to weigh in on that would would be uh improper.

Well, I am incredulous. I am totally incredulous is, you know, I I tell you something. He Blumenthal is a uh he's an interesting guy. He's he's incredibly um articulate and he's very bright, but incredulous would not be the word that I would use if that was me up there speaking to these four [ __ ] All right? It would not be the word that I would Can you for really sit there and turn around while you are now here under subpoena before this committee? I suspect it's subpoena. And you want to tell me that there are cases when when was that hearing by the way?

Two days ago. Okay. You know that Trump gave every single one of those individuals a pardon. So there are no cases that should be pending before anyone. That is yet another lie, right? They were all pardoned. Every single including my pal over there, Pam Hemple, right? Known as the MAGA granny, who turned around and is trying to fight the pardon that she received because she doesn't want anything from him. So how many cases, how is it possible that there's a case simply when the president of the United States who has made it crystal clear anybody who is there anybody that is charged with anything has now received a pardon from the president. So how does any of this jive you know but you make a great point about what Blumenthal said at the end incredulous. I'm not saying this in a like I don't use the word incredulous that much. And so when a when a person who's maybe not like steeped in I mean yeah

it's like okay the word incredulous we get we get what it means it's not a word that's like used like honey I'm incredulous very incredulous about what you're like and so the word and the reaction does that's why I say like the benality of evil right the benality like like there's something about that whole scene that's deeply dystopian and disturb I think why people like the show is that you give the two you give the two-finger salute like you look

you're always going to get from Ben you're always going to get it from me right you know sometimes I go too far but you will always get it from my hunch network you will always get truth you will always get it truth based on fact you know it's easy for me to turn around and to say oh you know well I think so and so based off of innuendo or hypotheticals that's not what this network was about when I started with Ben how many years ago, five and a half. One of the things that we talked about at length was that his network, this Midas Touch network was going to be a network where people can come and when they walk away, they know that the information that they got is accurate and correct, plain and simple. And you know what? They've lived up to that.

They've lived up to that promise. And I will, too. I don't talk about innuendo. It's why I get so frustrated at people when they start talking about, you know, well, I know what that photograph means. No, you don't. No, you don't. You know what we need? We need the documents in that Epstein file to corroborate what we think. And when those documents, you know, when the 982 page um project 2025 was released, I'll tell you two people who actually read every single word of every single page and came back and reported on it on a daily basis. It's Ben and I. I know I know other people did, too. But I also know that Ben and I read every single word of that that manifesto put out by Russell VA and others in order to dismantle our democracy. Plain and simple. We will never allow that to happen. Now, sometimes you may say, "Oh, well, you know, Michael, you're standing up for Donald Trump. You know, why are

you standing up for him?" No, I'm not. No, I'm not. I'm giving you a fact, not an opinion. You have an opinion. What I come to the table with is facts. Because many of these things that you're that you're questioning, I live through it. It's not that I have some specific knowledge that I read somewhere. No, no. I live through it. I know it like I know my own birthday. And that's the point we're trying to make. We all need to join together. We need to be so big, so strong. Did anybody see, for example, on CNN Harry Enon talking about how the Democrats are fairing right now in terms of favorability? Ben, did you see that as well?

What was what's the latest? Horrible. In fact, Democrats are like one basis point below the favorability of Republicans. I I was like, "How can somebody please share with me? How is it possible with everything that's going on? 42 million Americans taking off of food assistance. You have over 25 million Americans are going to be losing health coverage. Can somebody please explain to me what the Democratic Party is doing or maybe not doing in order to increase the favorability? Because my biggest fear, and I say it all the time, while the while we have the momentum right now, they are not fake polls.

Stop. All right. One thing I can assure you, all right, this was like uh uh an Ipso, CNN, NPR poll. This is not a fake poll. We need to ensure that the midterm elections are so overwhelmingly blue that we end up wiping the red right off the map. Because if not, what we see happening today, including that hall of shame where Trump and his people put those placards underneath presidents and disparage them. My god, THIS IS OUR HOUSE. This is our house. This isn't his house. It's our house. And they do these things. This stuff is going to happen every single day unless we do what we need to do to continue to grow this community. We need to continue to make sure people get out and vote. And we need to be angry. We need to be mobilized. We need to be aggressive because if not, my biggest fear is what happened with Kla Harris is going to happen again in 2026.

Let's take our first and only quick break of the show. I have a sense of who you'll give the two-finger salute to. We'll be right back to find out for sure. Reminder, subscribe to the Mayulpa audio podcast. That's Michael Cohen's audio podcast. Subscribe to his YouTube channel at the Michael Cohen show. Subscribe there. Subscribe to Michael Cohen Substack. Michael Cohen Substack. Subscribe right here on the Midas Touch Network. And uh we'll be right back. You ever open up your closet, you put on a shirt and instantly you wonder why clothing companies hate us? Too tight in one spot. ballooning out in another like it's personally offended by your existence. Well, that used to be my entire wardrobe until I switched to true classic. I mean, these guys had one mission in mind. Premium comfortable clothing for real people who don't want to drop designer money just to look like they bothered to get dressed. And

clearly, the mission worked. 25 million shirts, 5 million customers, 200,000 five-star reviews. That's not a fan base. That's a movement. But here's what hooked me. True classic isn't about fashion theater. It's about confidence. You throw one on and suddenly the shirt fits the way shirts are supposed to fit. Tailored where you want it. Relaxed where you need it. No bunching, no weird shoulder puff, no stiff fabric making you feel like, I don't know, you're wearing a cardboard cutout of yourself. And now they've got options for everyone, men, women, kids, which makes holiday gifting dangerously easy. And instead of guessing sizes or, I don't know, buying someone a sweater they'll pretend to like for exactly 14 seconds, you give them something that they'll actually wear. And not just once, like for real. I've been wearing True Classic for a while now, and I'm telling you, the moment it goes on, you feel the

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That's true. T ru casic.com/beat. Go now. Welcome back to Political Beatdown. You know, I I'm going to give you another candidate right now for your two-finger salute. Did you see that hearing on Capitol Hill with Brendan Carr, the FCC?

I did. Chair. I did. And so he was asked a very basic question by uh Democratic Senator um Luhan. Um and let me show you what uh what went down. Senator Lu Han said, "Is the FCC It's basically a similar question, right? As we saw before question, by the way,

right, right, right. The Blumenthal question before we took the break was, is January, was there an attack on the capital on January 6?" Not, it wasn't even were people guilty? What was was there an attack on January 6 at the capital? And that those people couldn't answer that. So the question from Senator Luhan was, "Is the FCC an independent agency?" On the FCC website, it says they're an independent agency because they are an independent a every FCC commissioner before Brendan Carr and Donald Trump would say we're an independent agency. We don't our boss is not the president. We operate in the interest of the public and we don't you know we we are we preserve and fight for our independence. So when we talk about institutions bending and breaking once upon a time it would be unfathomable for the United States president to say I don't like that comedian. I don't like this. I don't like that. Get rid of him. Get rid of

him FCC chair. And the FCC chair goes yes sir. Absolutely sir. Right. But here you have Brendan Carr, FCC chair. And I know people who knew this guy. I had on Midas, a former FCC commissioner, former chair, tell me that Brendan used to work for him. And he said, you know, Brendan, he goes, Brendan was a smart guy. We had differences of political opinion. He's like, Brendan knows what he's doing. Yet Brendan in his thirst for power is this guy now. This is who he is. He's a bad guy. Let's play this clip of Luhan cross-examining car.

Yes. SEC an independent agency. Uh Senator, thanks for that question. I think yes or no is all we need. Sir, yes or no. Is it independent?

Well, there's a test for this in the law in the the key portion of that test. Yes. Yes or no, Brendan?

The key portion of that test is Okay, I'm going to go to commissioner trusty. So, just so you know, Brendan, on your website, it just simply says, man, the FCC is independent. This isn't a trick question.

Okay. The FCC is not is not is not. So, is your website wrong? Is your website lying?

Possibly. The FCC is not an independent agency. Okay. Can I read this to you? The FCC's mission on the homepage of the FCC. Man, an independent US government agency overseen by Congress. Is that factual or is that a lie?

The FC is not formally an independent. Is this true or is this a lie? I I can I'm happy to answer your question.

Okay. The sin of removable by the president. Chairman, I have a little bit of a time. I'll get back to you.

Is not an independent agency formerly speaking. appreciate you saying that and being honest with the American people. Commissioner Trusty,

Senator, thank you for the question. The president is the chief chief executive vested with all executive power in our government and FCC.

It's it's um like I hope everybody that's watching with us right now that you're flabbergasted. All right. They do know better. It's not just that these FCC representatives, who by the way, they don't work for Donald Trump, they work for us. They work for the government. The government works for the people. That's the way democracy works. In a dictatorship, yes, you would work for the king, the monarch, the ruler, the supreme leader, whatever you want to call the individual. But in a democratic republic, they work for the people. And what a shame that you can't even answer a question. Are you independent? It's no more, no worse than those four [ __ ] the ones who were there, what was it, um, in Missouri and so on, who sat there and could not answer a simple question that a three-year-old, a three-year-old can answer. Was, you know, was this an attack on the capital? All you have to do is show them a video of these people

climbing the walls, smashing the windows, and doing the things that they did. Well, sure looked like an attack to me. And the fact that they're all feckless, that they're all scared within which to answer a question truthfully and honestly, especially when you're there before a hearing, which is where truth is supposed to come out to all of them, whether it was six of them or seven of them, to all of these feckless [ __ ] [ __ ] you all. All right, rest assured this [ __ ] is coming to an end. If we can all get together, stay rock solid, stay unified, if we can do that, this 2026 midterms are going to go not just great for the House. I believe that there's a great opportunity right now for Democrats to take the Senate as well. This [ __ ] has to come to an end. You cannot have an individual who does not believe in rule of law, does not believe in the tripartite system of government, does not believe in any of

the norms of our democratic republic, have full and total control, not just over the House of Representatives, not just over the Senate, but over the judiciary as well. And when we end up taking back the House and or the Senate, rest assured all this [ __ ] comes to an end. So again, to the six of seven of them, [ __ ] you all. Here you go over here, Dan or sorry, Greg Bevino, the border patrol, border patrol head back in Chicago, mocking the community, like torturing people in Chicago, and then like gloating in it, doing like rock, paper, scissor. Watch this. Sicko, right? He's like a psychopath. Watch this.

You're a piece of [ __ ] You're a piece of [ __ ] [ __ ] And you guys going to pay for the [ __ ] that you do?

You're a piece of [ __ ] Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors. Rock, paper, scissors.

You guys are [ __ ] losers. And that's why your Christmas is going to be pieces of [ __ ] cuz you're a piece of [ __ ] You're a piece. like a der I don't I don't even get it like derange people

rock paper scissors to to do what to decide whether we take this this child and we separate from the parent or we turn around and take that guy just because his name is is Juan or Jose right and you just face plant him into the concrete

was this drawing straws to see who could be cruel or more cruel or Magike Johnson as he shuts down Congress today. Everybody's on vacation. Do we have the clip, Jeremy, of him shutting down Congress? I'm not sure if we actually have, just so people can see that they literally just shut it down. Um, I'll try to pull that up in a bit. Let's see if we have that clip of him shutting down Congress. Maybe we don't have that one of him shutting down Congress. Let's show the one of of him uh saying that it doesn't matter if 7% of Americans lose their healthcare, just 7%. Let's play that clip. But here's here's the false narrative. The Democrats are are pretending as though this affects everybody in the country. It affects 7% of Americans, this extended subsidy. And of those, even if it was extended without any reforms at all, it would only reduce that small group of Americans premiums by 5.7%.

The Democrats 22 million Americans. No, we're I understand that this is not for everybody, but it's 22 to 24 million Americans. And there are some Republican some Republican

Republicans whose districts are going to face some real trouble and some real issues with this. We we've talked to some of them. I understand that Mike Lawler from New York was particularly upset yesterday that he was kind of

um furious about it. Said it's idiotic. It's political malpractice. That's what he told Axios on some of this. They said they could hear him yelling from outside the room yesterday where all of you were meeting.

Well, no. No. I was in that room with him and Mike Lawler is one of my close friends. In fact, I was with him in his district in New York City just two weeks ago, campaigning for a couple of days, raising him money and helping him get reelected. He's an essential member of our conference and a really smart guy. And what he was arguing for is this 7% of Americans. But here's the point. What we're going to do today is the first of multiple steps to help not just 7% of Americans, but 100% of Americans reduce their premiums. Actually reduce

Okay. Okay. Time out here, Mike. Magga Mike, right? With your with your makeup and your lipstick. I mean, there's something with all these guys with JD Vans and the and the eyeliner and and my I mean, honestly, Magga Mike looks like one of those porcelain dolls where, you know, the cheeks are all rosy and he's got like the powdered makeup all over. Let me be crystal clear on something. 22 to 25 Americans, right, who are going to lose their healthare, that's losing their health care. I know that my wife since last Friday been working every single day in speaking to the agent from the insurance company because we got a letter that our insurance premium is going to be increased by 25%. It's already stupidly expensive. Now it becomes almost cost prohibitive. So she's sitting there literally since last Friday. It's easy for them to say, "Oh, this doesn't really affect that many people." Because it doesn't affect them.

And that's the problem. They are not being treated the way they have health coverage that's better than any health plan. No matter if you pay $10,000 per person per month, their insurance policy is still better. And with all due respect to us, because I think we're all stupid. We're actually paying for their health coverage, right? And yet they have no regard for us. There's something there's something really wrong going on here. And that's why Magga Mike Johnson will most probably end up losing the speakership literally when they come back in January.

Take a look at what Lawler said though. Like we have we have Lawler on tape. You heard what MAGA Mike said. What did Lawler, the MAGA Republican from New York's 17th congressional district have to say? Let's play it.

Final product will have to be a compromise. And that's been my point from the start.

Do the work. Do the bipartisan compromise. And and frankly, Dana, this is important. Both leaders, both leaders have failed here because we don't have a bill on the floor. And Hakee Jeff is sticking with his three years or bust with no reforms. So it creates a real challenge to get something done.

But but Hakee Jeff does not have the power to bring something to the floor as you know

with the discharge. No. Yes, he does with the discharge. Right. Right. With the discharge.

But that's why you did it. I'm saying right. And so they went ahead. They filed for the discharge petition. They had the votes and M what does Magamike do, Ben? Right. guy starts preparing for the Olympics and sprinting and he sprints the hell out of DC faster, right, than Flash Gordon. I mean, this is simply out of control. Anytime that something is coming up that they cannot control because his entire GOP house is fractured, they just run run like the wind. Finally, let's talk about this last thing. Donald Trump renaming the Kennedy Center unlawfully doesn't have the right to do this to the Trump Kennedy Center.

The Kennedy family is just other than I guess RFK. I mean they're horrified by this. I mean the idea of this naming was for a fallen president who contributed to the arts for Donald Trump not postumously but right now to put his name on the Kennedy Center. So Trump has his own board of lackeyis. It's like Pam Bondi's on there and Susie White. It's like literally his It's like his crew, right? Dan Scavenino. Now, there are still a few people on there who are holdovers, but it's like 85 90% like Trump's people. And what happened was there was a phone call by the board and what the board did of Trump's people is they muted everybody's line. So, even though they would have had the ability to pass this anyway because it just trumps people and this is what they're doing. Now, let me be clear. Even if they pass it, it's symbolic because it has to be congressionally approved and Congress didn't and Congress didn't

approve this. And so it's just like when Trump calls the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of War, the War Department right now, like it's an unlawful act, but with MAGA in the House and the Senate and Trump saying, "I don't give a f about the law." It's not I'm incredulous. It's that you're he's a criminal like this. These are all criminal acts taking place. He it's like graffiti. He's defacing the Kennedy Center and calling it the Trump Kennedy Center and changing things. So what they did though on the board vote is they muted the phone lines of everybody who would object. So they couldn't even raise an objection. Like that's their like that's their behavior. Again, I don't care if you're a Democrat, Republican, or independent. This is crazy stuff. Here I want you to see as one of the remaining board members who's a not Trumper, a Democratic Congresswoman, what she said went down.

Here, play this clip. I'm Congresswoman Joyce Batty. I'm sitting here in my congressional office in Washington DC just ending a call with the Kennedy Center where I serve as an exofficial member. I am bringing this to you live today because what you may hear is that there was a unanimous vote to rename the Kennedy Center the Trump Center. be clear. I was on that call and as I tried to push my button to voice my concern, to ask questions, and certainly not to vote in support of this, I was muted. Each time I tried to speak, I was muted.

Participants were not allowed to voice their concerns who were online. Yet it was said at the end it was a unanimous vote. Clearly the Congress has a say in this. This center, the Kennedy Center was created by the Congress. I think it's important for us to know that I I mean again flabbergasted.

Incredulous, right? Incredulous. Incredulous. I'm going to use other words. I'm indubitably I'm injubitably incredulous right now. All right, everybody. Um, we'll we'll see people before uh Christmas. We'll see people on Tuesday. So, if we if you don't tune in on Tuesday, you should tune in on Tuesday. Have a merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy Quanza. We don't celebrate any of those. Still, happy holidays. Enjoy time with your family. We're grateful for everybody here. As we've always said, the people have been resilient.

institutions may bend and break, but we've all banded together. And while the country is far worse off right now than it was last year at this time, I think there's actually more hope right now and what a world can look like post Trump when people band together and say enough is enough. We're not standing for this. I want everybody to subscribe to Michael Cohen's YouTube channel at the Michael Cohen show. Subscribe to his Substack at Michael Cohen Substack. Subscribe to the Maya Audio podcast. Subscribe here on the Midas Touch YouTube channel as well.

Thank you to our sponsors. The discount codes for all our sponsors are in the description below. Thank you again everybody. We appreciate you and we'll see you next time on Political Beatdown. Shout out Midas mighty. Shout out Beatdown Brigators. Boom.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "LIVE: Meiselas and Cohen GO LIVE on BREAKING NEWS - 12/18/2025"?

Ben Meiselas (Host), Michael Cohen (Host), Jeremy (Guest), Joyce Beatty (Guest), Richard Blumenthal (Guest), Brendan Carr (Guest), Cynthia Lummis (Guest), Mike Johnson (Guest).

What is "LIVE: Meiselas and Cohen GO LIVE on BREAKING NEWS - 12/18/2025" about?

The discussion centers on the imminent release of the Epstein files, with Donald Trump's administration allegedly facilitating and overseeing the redaction process involving national security personnel from the DOJ and FBI. The hosts highlight unusual resistance among lawyers to participate in this process, contrasting it with previous reports of extensive staff involvement in handling these…

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

28 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Kennedy Center, 1776 warrior dividend, Senator Richard Blumenthal, Political Beatdown, Jason Leopold, Attorney General of the United States. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "LIVE: Meiselas and Cohen GO LIVE on BREAKING NEWS - 12/18/2025"?

The episode runs 58 min; the transcript is about 9,053 words in 103 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.