Transcript

Trump PUSHED to the BRINK as he GAMBLES with ALL OUT WAR

From MeidasTouch · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 15 min · 2,524 words · 26 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Trump PUSHED to the BRINK as he GAMBLES with ALL OUT WAR", an episode of MeidasTouch published December 19, 2025 (15 min, about 2,524 words). It mentions 12 people, works and ideas, including United States Department of Defense, Juan Orlando Hernández, War powers / Congressional power to declare war, Rules of engagement, DUP points.

What this episode is about

The discussion focuses on escalating U.S. military actions in the Caribbean, particularly against Venezuela, and the lack of transparency regarding military operations. Senator Mark Kelly highlights concerns about potential war, the absence of congressional oversight, and the challenges faced by critics within the government, amid threats from the Trump administration.

Key takeaways

  • Opaque strikes - the Pentagon's secrets are hotter than their hellfire missiles.
  • Senator defiance: When Mark Kelly channels Maverick to joust with the Pentagon.
  • The president suggests hanging for dissent? Democracy just went medieval.
  • 9:30 PM tweets: When Hegsath's bedtime thoughts circle around a truth-telling senator.
  • Venezuelan tensions: A tanker a day keeps diplomatic peace at bay.

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 9:00: dupe.com, DUP points, Rules of engagement
  2. – 15:00: South Vietnam

Notable quotes from "Trump PUSHED to the BRINK as he GAMBLES with ALL OUT WAR"

  • Hunting for only to realize the price tag belongs in a museum and not your shopping cart? That's where dupe.com comes in. It's easy. Just drop dupe.com/ in front of any product…
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  • In Venezuela. And when we've, sent the military in previously for regime change, whether it was South Vietnam or Cuba or Iraq or Afghanistan, you probably had a lot of listeners, followers out there that served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
    about South Vietnam · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

Companies & orgs

Products & tech

Concepts & topics

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Sponsors

Full transcript with timestamps

Of course, we're not going to release a top secret uh full unedited video of that to the general public. Haskins Sask and appropriate committees will see it, but not the general public.

The US has stepped up its military presence in the Caribbean in recent months, even seizing a tanker just the other day, carrying Venezuelan oil headed for Cuba and China. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegsath said yesterday the full unedited video of the US military's September 2nd strike on an alleged drug boat will not be released to the public. It's Ken Harbaugh with the Midas Touch Network. Of course, they don't want to release the video. They have taken us to the brink of war with Venezuela on the flimsiest of evidence with no congressional oversight. And when members of Congress do have the courage to speak out to, for example, remind those serving in uniform that they have an obligation to refuse illegal orders, they are threatened.

Critics of the regime are literally threatened with hanging by the president himself. That's a sentence I never thought I would say about my country. Today I'm talking to one of those critics of the regime, a Navy vet who flew combat missions over Iraq, who launched into space wearing an American flag on his shoulder, and who now serves as Arizona's senior senator. In the face of Donald Trump's death threats against him, Senator Mark Kelly has not backed down. Just the opposite, he has redoubled his efforts to hold this administration and the Department of Defense in particular accountable to the American people. This is a conversation you don't want to miss. Here's me and Senator Mark Kelly.

Senator Kelly, thank you so much for joining me today. I wish we could swap flying stories and talk with our hands, but

we we Why don't we do that? Because it seems like there's a war about to break out. The Department of Defense I I hope not, too. I I would love your perspective on what's going on. You reportedly just left a closed door meeting with the Secretary of Defense where there was a heated exchange. Now there are threats of escalating this investigation of you which apparently you heard about over Twitter. Sir, where do you want to start?

Well, let's start at maybe start at the beginning. I put out a very basic message uh to follow the law. It was truthful. It's in the UCMJ. We didn't think we'd get this kind of reaction from the president. He didn't like what we said, which was don't follow illegal orders or you can't. It's actually prohibited. And because he didn't like what I said, he said I should be killed, hanged, executed, and then finally prosecuted under the uniform code of military justice with which it seems because uh Pete Hegsath, the secretary of defense, is uh just trying to please the president. he fully embraced this idea of recalling me to active duty and prosecuting me under the UCMJ.

Um, so obviously I've, you know, I've got to get some, you know, lawyers. I've got to, you know, mount a defense to this. The whole thing's kind of ridiculous. And it's really an assault not just on me, but the First Amendment rights of every single American, you know, not just retired folks, but people on active duty. Who's going to want to speak out when they feel an obligation to say something when this president uh will go after a US senator for just what he said because he didn't like it. Um, so it's sad. See, I mean, Pete Pegsth was tweeting about me last night, 9:30 at night. We had that meeting at 9:00 a.m. yesterday where um he got all kind of, you know, a little bit um animated about this whole thing. I was asking him some questions about the strikes, like three specific questions about these boat strikes, and he felt the need to give me a speech. So I shut him down, made him answer the questions.

Then I kind of circled back to it later and just reminded him these are the same things that he said in 2016 repeatedly,

right? Which we and specifically about this specifically about this president, which we have on tape. This is this is not hearsay. We have the secretary of defense saying that the military has to refuse illegal orders. When you put out the the most recent statement, you reiterated your point that this is about all of us. They're coming after you, but you're the first line of defense. And you you also close the video by saying they picked the wrong guy. I am I'm so glad.

Oh, yeah. Go for it. Yeah. Yeah. I'm kind of glad they picked me because there's no chance I back off from these these guys. I don't It doesn't matter if it's the president or the secretary of defense. I'm trying to figure out what do I say about his 9:30 at night. He's tweeting about me. Does the secretary

Doesn't he have better things to do? I was just going to ask like I I I I wound up getting in his head yesterday for about 12 hours.

9:30 at night, he's tweeting about a senator who told the truth with five other colleagues, was threatened by the president for doing so. As we're on the verge of what seems like another regime change in Latin America, which we we don't historically have a great record with, what can you tell us about those strikes, what you're allowed to share from the closed door meetings? Is there any chance the American people will see the footage from the second strike? What is going on? And what levers does Congress have to hopefully stop us from getting into another stupid war? Well, I haven't seen the video yet.

I'm going to see it in about in about 45 minutes. And I think the American people should see it. They were so excited about showing the um some of the video like when everything goes the way they want and they show they you know they're hitting these uh boats with hellfires or whatever or small diameter bombs. We don't even have all the details uh on exactly what they're, you know, using to take out, you know, all these ships. But the the second strike on the first boat is the one that we know is rather controversial at this point because there were two individuals that survived the initial strike and then were um you know, sort of I mean, we'll see.

I mean, I'm going to see it later, but seems to me to be out of the fight and uh meet the definition of being shipwrecked. So, that's one thing that we've got to sort through. And I think it's important for the American people to see that video. And ultimately, we we are a country of laws and there has to be accountability. And I feel really bad for the members of the military. One of the reasons I put out that video is I didn't want something like this to happen because I know who Donald Trump is and I know who Pete Haggath is. Pete Hagsath is a sickopant that's just trying to please a president who is not qualified for the job. He should have never been in there and he runs around talking about hunting hunting and killing people. This is the secretary of defense and lethality and warrior ethos and he doesn't like the rules of engagement. He thinks it hinders our forces. and a president who says, "Well,

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Hey everyone, it's Ken. Quick break for a shameless pitch for my Substack and Patreon pages. To all of you who have subscribed, thank you. Your support is what makes this show possible. Anytime you see in-person reporting, whether it's trips to Ukraine to show you what is really happening on the ground or my recent conversations with Congressman Jason Crowe and Senator Tammy Duckworth, where we got on there commitments to back hearings into ISIS abuses of power. People need to know that we're taking names.

All of this only happens with your support. Every dollar that comes in through Substack and Patreon goes back into this show. And with the holidays coming up, you can give gift subscriptions as well. The links are below. Thanks for everything. Your support means the world to me. Back to the show. Now we find ourselves in this place where it seems this president now wants to attack Venezuela with US forces in the Caribbean. We have a battle group there. We've got Marines in the region, Marine F-35s. Um it doesn't seem we have much in the way of, you know, ground forces yet, but you know, there's not nothing publicly reported on that. But I am concerned that he's going to go in there and try to kick out Maduro. Maduro is a bad guy.

He's as bad as that Juan Hernandez guy from Honduras who the president let out of prison and pardoned. They're basically clones of each other. Maduro, it would be great if he would go, but to go to war, put US uh service members in harm's way over this just to to kick the guy out does not make a ton of sense to me. These things do not normally go as a president expects,

right? The president just posted on social media that the US Navy has surrounded Venezuela. My geography might be a little off, but what levers

Venezuela is not an island? No, it is not. No, it is not. I think all you have to do is look at a map. Nonetheless, what levers does the Senate have? Are there funding powers that the Senate can exercise to to limit the president's ability to do this? I mean, I know he's got 90 days to do basically whatever the hell he wants, but what tools do you have to either shine some light on this supposed strategy? Because we haven't had a briefing. Normally, when the country goes to war, the American people are told why. Normally, when the well, I would say normally when the country goes to war, Congress has to approve it.

We've abandoned that oversight uh long ago. But might the Senate and House finally rediscover its constitutional mandate to to declare war and reign this president in on this latest misadventure?

Well, it helps if uh Democrats were in the majority. I mean, we've got to get Republicans on board. I mean, that's how the Congress works, right? If you're in the majority, you have subpoena power. Uh you can call witnesses. You could set the agenda for the for hearings. You can try to shine some light on it. I know there are my some of my Republican colleagues that are also like what is going on here? I mean, we don't want to go to war against Venezuela. What's going to matter is uh how many of them feel strongly enough about this that they're willing to, you know, buck the head of the party to go and speak truth to power against this president.

There will be there will be some of them, but it might be just a few. And then we wind up in a situation where this where this guy Donald Trump just marches us off to, you know, a conflict in Venezuela. And when we've, you know, sent the military in previously for regime change, whether it was South Vietnam or Cuba or Iraq or Afghanistan, you you probably had a lot of uh, you know, listeners, followers out there that served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those, you know, those were um all about, you know, regime change.

they don't go as as we normally think. Um, you know, if this is about, as the president stated initially, if this is about fentanyl, which is what he said, and it's not about fentanyl. I mean, those routes do not bring fentanyl. But if it was about fentanyl, take the resources that it costs to keep a battle group in the Caribbean, apply those resources to um improving our ports of entry and technology uh to be able to screen vehicles better. You could really put a big dent in the fentanyl problem. I've been trying to do that since I've been here. getting uh money in the bipartisan infrastructure bill to get more technology, these X-ray machines. Every car doesn't get X-ray now. But with the resources we're spending every single day, easily solved and then you could keep a lot of the fentanyl out and that's the drug that's killing Americans mostly.

That was part one of my conversation with Senator Mark Kelly and part two out Monday. We talk about the Trump regime's attempts to silence him and why fighting back is absolutely essential. See you then. Love this video? Support independent media and unlock exclusive content. Add free videos and custom emojis by becoming a paid member of our YouTube channel today. You can also gift memberships to others. Let's keep growing together.

Questions about this episode

What is "Trump PUSHED to the BRINK as he GAMBLES with ALL OUT WAR" about?

The discussion focuses on escalating U.S. military actions in the Caribbean, particularly against Venezuela, and the lack of transparency regarding military operations. Senator Mark Kelly highlights concerns about potential war, the absence of congressional oversight, and the challenges faced by critics within the government, amid threats from the Trump administration.

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

12 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including United States Department of Defense, Juan Orlando Hernández, War powers / Congressional power to declare war, Rules of engagement, DUP points, South Vietnam. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Trump PUSHED to the BRINK as he GAMBLES with ALL OUT WAR"?

The episode runs 15 min; the transcript is about 2,524 words in 26 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.