Transcript of Tuesday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben — 2/24/26

The MeidasTouch Podcast
01:06:35 83 views Published about 2 months ago
Transcribed from audio to text by
00:00:01

Welcome to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Meisellas, and this is Breaking News, the big news today that everybody's talking about. The People's State of the Union, just hours away on the Washington National Mall. That's where the Midas Touch Network and move on will be holding our state of the Union, the people's state of the Union. Of course, we're boycotting the state of the Union here on the Midas Touch Network, which was a relatively easy decision. Why would we want to platform a authoritarian festival? Why would we want to platform someone who's going to just continue to lie and someone who's already broken down all the traditions and norms and has ripped to shred our Constitution? When people are like, But it's tradition. Well, if you follow the tradition of democracy, even if I disagree with you politically, then I'll say that people should be showing up. But ultimately, if you rip to shreds the Constitution, if you don't support the traditions and norms of our country, and you engage in the types of behavior that Donald Trump and his despicable regime has, this is a natural consequence. It's not even a hard decision to make, frankly.

00:01:19

Why would I live stream the state of the Union where we just know he's going to lie the entire time? Everything is great. We've never been richer. Things are amazing. Things couldn't be better. Inflation is down. No one even talks about affordability anymore because I won. I defeated affordability issue. It's not even an issue anymore. We've never been stronger. I've settled eight wars, nine wars, if you come to think about it. I've settled nine wars. I created the Board of Peace. The Board of Peace is what we called it. We've totally secured the border and the heroic aspects of ICE and Border Patrol were so amazing, and everybody's very grateful. This is finally after all of the destruction From a guy named Sleepy Joe. Sleepy Joe. It's really bad, really bad times. I saved our nation. I rebuilt the military. I did everything. Everything was me, me, me, and it's amazing. The Dow is over 50,000. I'm not even though it isn't. Everything couldn't be better. There it is. I did the speech for you. Maybe he does the noises. Maybe he throws in that. Maybe he does a little... What's his new line that he talks about lately?

00:02:47

That there's a man who's trying to violently kiss him. There's a man, he tried to violently kiss me, and I told him, I'm a good little boy. I told him, I'm a good boy. I'm a good boy, everybody. You know what? The Supreme Court is going to be there. The Supreme Court, you made a very bad decision. Tariffs, it's a word. It's a word. I use that word tariffs, and I'm a good reader. I'm a good reader. I read paragraphs really well, and I know from the paragraphs that I read that I can do tariffs. Come to think about it. Just think, why is it that I can destroy countries, but I can't impose a tariff? Does that make it... But look, with what the power the Supreme Court gave me, I'll make my tariffs even stronger. There'll be stronger tariffs. Everybody will get rebates, $2,000, $5,000 rebates. You're all going to be rich, winning, winning. Have you ever heard of winning this much? You're going to say, Please stop all of the winning. I have a guest with me right here, and here's the guest. The guest is someone who has transitioned, and now they transitioned Now they transition back.

00:04:03

At the end of the day, look who we have here. Let's be clear. Under my administration, we say no to men in women's bathrooms and sports and don't play the sports and penises and vaginas, everybody. I'm very strong on that. I'm told you I'm very strong. Okay, that's it. That's what the That's what the state of the Union is ultimately going to be. Somalians, Somalians this, Somalians that. Okay, I did it for you. I did the whole bit. That's what's going to happen. The MAGA Republicans are really pissed at the Midas Touch Network for working with MoveOn. We're the distributor. We're carrying the people state of the Union. We'll have about 40 members of Congress, senators, members of the House of Representatives will be there. What I expect when our people state of the Union starts, I think you're going to see a very compelling scene with all of these lawmakers on the stage, shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with each other. I think that's going to be a photo that will be etched in the history books. It's my gut of what we're going to see at the beginning. Then we'll go into our program where we have incredible speakers, everybody from Senator Gallego to Senator Murphy.

00:05:35

We have Senator Smith. We have Congress member Frost and Gia Paul. I can go down the list. Lejair Fernandez So many incredible speakers that if I listed everybody. Do we have the People State of the Union graphic there, Jeremy, that we can show? Here's one of the graphics. You can see some of the people who are going to be showing up. You can see some of the names right there. Gallego, Markey, Merkley, Murphy, Schiff, Smith, Chris Van Haalen, Anzari, Ballant, Cossard, Garcia, LeJerre Fernandez, Frost, Jim Himes, Jacobs, Giapal, Larson, Kamliger Dove, Summer Lee, Pinegree. We've got Presley, Randall. We also have Congress member Cohen from Texas. Texas is ninth. We forgot to put them on the graphic. Randall, Scanlan, Ramirez, Coleman, and more. It's hosted by Katie Fang and Joy Reid. So there you have it, folks. It's going to be an incredible night. If you're wondering, Where do I watch it? Here. You watch it here on the live feed. I'm sure you've all seen by now. It says People's State of the Union. There's already just 5,000 people or so just hanging out there in that waiting room. You could watch our videos throughout the day, go hang in the waiting room, and you could message people throughout the day and chat about what you expect is going to happen.

00:07:12

But it starts 8: 00 Eastern, 5: 00 Pacific. And so looking forward to that. All right. Maggie Mike Johnson, Attacking the Midas Touch Network. He says that we are disgraceful, we are horrible, we are extremists, we We are the ones breaking tradition, he says. Here's what Maggie Mike has to say. Moments ago, let's play. It's shameful that they would boycott an address. We don't do that. Republicans don't do that. It doesn't matter if there's a President from the opposing party. We don't skip out. Our constituents want and need us to be here. Every member of this house represents over 750,000 people. They're disenfranchized if you're not sitting in the seat to be a part of the role and the responsibility of Congress. I think it's shameful. Republicans Americans have a far simpler and far superior message for Americans watching at home. We're putting more money back in your pockets. We're restoring peace through strength. We're defending our border and deporting criminal illegal aliens. We're standing up for American industry and manufacturing, and we're making American workers, not foreign countries, the clear winners in this American economy. Those are not talking points. That is what we have delivered.

00:08:24

It's called Republican Results, and we are proud to run on that message in this fateful midterm election year. Run on it. Run on it. Donald Trump says he's going to speak for three hours tonight. Says it's going to last three hours, the State of the Union. I saw somebody say, This must be a threat. Inflicting more psychological torture on Americans. A three hours? Okay, it's ridiculous. The good news is you're not going to be watching that. You're going to be watching the People State of the Union here on the Midas Touch Network. We'll then bring you the rebuttal by Governor Spamberger of Virginia. That's the official Democratic rebuttal. Then separately, although we'll keep it on the same feed, we'll bring you the official rebuttal from the Working Families Party, Summer Lee. You'll see all of the rebuttals throughout the day. We have our Washington, DC Bureau working really hard right now, interviewing members of Congress. I hope in a little bit to get you a video that will show you what's going on what's going down throughout Congress. But what's Donald Trump's big focus today? What's one of the things that he's really been pushing?

00:09:39

Well, Donald Trump has launched a new website to sell a new version of Trump Watches, and they're running Trump Watches ads on state regime media, which is Fox and others. I'm only going to play a small clip of it, but anyway, you're going to play this clip. Hello, everyone. It's President Donald J. Trump, and it's Trump time. Check out this red beauty. It's one of my new watches. Wear it proudly on your wrist, and everyone will know exactly what it's for, who it's for. Okay, we don't need to play any more of that, but that's one of the things that he's doing. What else did we learn this morning as well? Well, we learned that... Remember those meme coins that Donald Trump was selling during his inauguration? Well, we got some data now from the meme coins. You can see right here that the Trump meme coins, the official Trump and Melania tokens, have collapsed 92% and 99% from their all-time highs, respectively. The damage to retail investors has been staggering. While insiders, meaning Trump and people Trump knows, while insiders cashed out over $600 million through fees and token sales, retail holders of these tokens absorbed the losses at a ratio of 20 to one.

00:11:00

For every dollar insiders earned, ordinarily investors lost $20 in total. Retail losses exceeded $4. 3 billion across nearly 2 million crypto wallets currently underwater. The concentration of gains is equally striking. Just 45 whale wallets, insiders, extracted a combined $1. 2 billion, and the sell-off may not be over. Think about that. You're telling me and lecturing me about traditions and norms when you have the grifter and thief doing that? I mean, but that's just Tuesday for grifter and Thief. That's just Tuesday before 6: 00 AM for Grifter and Thief. You think about all the other things he's doing. Again, we have mast, ICE and Border Patrol Gestapo torturing, terrorizing, killing people in this country. We have concentration camps in this country now, warehouses that have been purchased for the purpose of torturing migrants and even citizens. We've got judge after judge appointed by all different presidents, including Trump appointees, saying that this DOJ has violated court order after court order. This DOJ person is held in contem, that DOJ person is held in contem. They don't care. Of course, we know they're covering up a child sex trafficking ring. There was more reporting today as well about accusations Accusations Against Donald Trump being covered up by the Department of Justice.

00:12:48

There was great reporting by NPR talking about how the Justice Department withheld and removed some of the documents that involved accusations against Donald Trump and real serious accusations that we are aware of. For example, the Justice Department, this is what it says, The Justice Department withheld some Epstein files related to allegations that Trump sexually abused a minor, an NPR investigation has found. It removes some documents from the public database where accusations against Epstein also mention Trump. Some files have not been made public despite a law mandating their release. These include what appear to be 50 pages of FBI interviews. Let's be clear. What we know about for sure, based on what's been produced, that there are 50 pages of FBI interviews involving someone who was a minor who accused Donald Trump of sexual assault, That's being hidden. What else is being hidden? Are photos of Donald Trump and Epstein being hidden? The type that Michael Wolf described, where there were girls of indeterminate age around Donald Trump, where he had stains on his pants? Are those being hidden and concealed? We know that there may be as much as 50 terabytes of documents that are still being concealed by Trump's DOJ.

00:14:07

50 terabytes, 5-0. That's hundreds of millions of documents in the Epstein files that are still being concealed And what's been produced already doesn't vindicate Donald Trump. Quite the contrary, the stuff that has been released is sickening. And in other countries, there's been some accountability. I mean, you look at the UK, you have Peter Peter Mandelstown, the ambassador from UK to the United States. He was arrested in the past 24 to 48 hours. Before that, Andrew Mountbatton, former Prince Andrew. He was arrested as well. Just think about it. In the UK, where they have actual royalty, there's no absolute immunity there. But in the United States, our right-wing fascist Supreme Court created a doctrine called absolute immunity. They invented it out of thin air. It's disgusting. Disgusting. So no, when Our government is covering up for the pedos, and the pedo cabal is inside 1,600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Sorry, don't lecture me. Don't lecture me on traditions and norms or anything like that. We caught up with Massey today, Thomas Massey, the Republican, perhaps one of the only courageous Republicans out there who's been working with Roe-Kana to release the Epstein files and to hold the Trump regime accountable for covering up a child sex trafficking ring.

00:15:36

Here's what Massey said moments ago. Let's play. Mr. Massey, you've been back now to the Department of Justice to see the unredacted files. What can you update us on? Well, I've got to go back again because we were not able to search the files that they had put on the website and then pulled back down. That subset of files contains what I think may be names of co-conspirators. Okay. Any reason why they would have taken them down? Well, they did take some files down in the first batch they did in December and redacted them some more and put them back up. But I'm not sure if they planned to put these back up. Ostensibly, the reason they took the first ones down was because there were survivors' information in them. Well, we will... By the way, that footage right there comes from our Washington, DC, Bureau. Thanks to all of you, we've built out a DC Bureau. And so that's Pablo Monriquez, who's doing that interview right there. And we appreciate you. If you want to become a member of our YouTube channel and help the growth of this network, you can click Join right now, and you can gift memberships to other people as well.

00:17:00

So just click join. You can give memberships if you want. No pressure. No worries. I go to mitisplus. Com. That's our sub stack as well. Mitisplus. Com. And make sure you subscribe here. We just hit six million subscribers yesterday. So we're on our way to seven million subscribers. Yeah, yesterday we had six million subscribers and nine billion views in the same day, it's a great accomplishment and it's thanks to you. But the numbers don't matter to me. I mean, billion, nine billion bazillion. For me, it's what you do with the platform, right? You can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk? I think is important. I hope that what we're doing tonight with the people State of the Union is using the platform that we've all built together with your help, exactly how this platform needs to be used. It's in stark contrast to corporate news, right? While we are boycotting the State of the Union and we are sharing actual policy speeches, and we're going to hear from not just the lawmakers, but they're going to be bringing guests. You're going to hear stories about how people have actually been impacted from this Trump regime.

00:18:19

So while we're doing that and talking about what's impacting Americans, people here in this country, Donald Trump is going to be there spewing lies. And corporate news, they were there in the White House today begging for access. And if you want to know why I call it regime media, it's because they get their marching orders from the regime. Let me share with you what Jonathan Karl said moments ago. Here, play this clip. Hey, I just left the White House room just leaving now. The President did a launch with Network News Anchors and offered a bit of a preview of his speech. One notable thing, we did talk about Iran. He said that Iran wants some deal more than I do, but they just can't say the magic words, which he said was that they won't build a bomb. The President said he's going to talk a lot about the economy, and he's going to call for new tax cuts tonight. He's going to say that the next three years in America will be the best years economically that we've ever had. And he's going to say, or he told us, it's already begun. So that's here at the White Just leaving lunch with the President and network anchors.

00:19:34

Just leaving with the network anchors. What are you, a stenographer? He's going to tell me what he said. Look, if you want to report that, Don't you think that you should say, Well, it's all false? Don't you think that you should say, Well, he was speaking with us today, and he told us that he's going to spend three hours lying to the American people? That's why when people ask me, Hey, would you want access to the White House? Why would I want? What would be the purpose of me doing that? I show up and I'm like, Hey, everybody, you want to know what the President told me? The President told me that we were great, and he's going to focus on more tax cuts, and he's going to give you all rebates, everybody. He's telling me that we've never been stronger. Also, he's going to talk about how he's been vindicated in the Epstein files. You know what else he's going to talk about? That Iran says they're very close to making a deal. Even though he said that they were previously obliterated, he did an obliteration that was not a full obliteration, but it's really an obliteration, he says.

00:20:47

We've never been more powerful. He's going to talk about how he stopped eight wars, everybody, and how everybody now has health care for free. You all have most favored nation's health care, and everybody's doing amazing. He also told me, he also told me, Everybody can afford homes, that it's so easy to pay your rent right now. Everybody's getting paid with dignity. It's amazing. We're in a golden age. That's going to be the speech. That's Ben Micellus from the Midas Touch Network. I will be reporting. What are we doing there? What are we doing? What's the point of posting that video? What's the point of that? And all the networks are there doing it. What's the point of that? Seriously. It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing. Even if you are a good reporter, when you do that, that's embarrassing. You want to know how the American people actually feel? Look at what the polling data says. I could show you anyone, but look at what the polling data says. Let's play it, Jeremy. I would borrow the phrasing of Tony Blair, of course, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, saying, Weak, weak, weak. It was weak over there in the United Kingdom.

00:21:55

It is weak here in the United States when it comes to President Trump. Okay, Trump's not approval rating. Look at all the pre-sotas polls, the state of the Union. Look at this. Okay, we're at this point. Look at that. Negative 27 points. My goodness gracious. The snow is up to the knees here in New York City, and Trump seems to be well underneath it at this point. Compare that to where he was in 2020, 2019, and 2018, and term one going into those state of unions. Minus 10, way lower now. Minus 15, way lower now. Minus 15, way lower now. The bottom line is this. Donald Trump has never been weaker going into a state of the Union address at Cournois, CNN polling than he is right now and weaker by a considerable amount. So this is his first term to his second term. How does it compare to other presidents at this point in their second term, though? Yeah, okay. It's not just that Donald Trump is breaking records compared to himself when it comes to state unions. He's breaking records compared to other presidents at this point going into a state of the Union.

00:22:51

What are we talking about? Look at all the 21st century presidents on your screen right here about at this point, a second term going into the state of the Union. Trump at minus 27 points. Obama was at minus 15 points. George W Bush was at minus 11 points. You don't have to be a mathematical genius to know that minus 27 points is considerably lower than minus 15 or minus 11. So Trump isn't just weaker than he's ever been going into a state of the Union address. He is weaker than any other president this century going into a state of the Union address at this point in their second term. We're talking about it all throughout the show as we're going through these numbers, but talk about what is driving this drop for the President. What is driving this I said, record was the name of the game when it came to this segment, right? Talking about the lowest Trump has ever been going into the state of the Union, the lowest that any president has been this century going into a state of the Union at this point in their presidency. It is also the weakest that Donald Trump has ever been with independence.

00:23:48

Look at this drop. We've been talking about it the past few months. At this point, a year ago, Donald Trump was at minus 13 points. Look at this. Minus 47 points among independents, the lowest Donald Trump has ever been in either of his two terms as president. He's a funny guy. Anton is a funny guy sometimes. Okay, well, what does Jim Jordan say about Donald Trump's awful polling when Manu Raju asked him. Here, let's play this clip. Let me jump in because he also said he was going to reduce prices on day one while in office. Just as his own data from his own government says that the rate of price increases for all food up 3%, up meat, poultry, fish and eggs, up 2%, all the way down the list. A number of items. Prices are still high. On top of that, voters don't think he's doing a particularly good job about the economy or concerned about the state of the economy. 72% of the American public thinks the economy is fair or poor, and that's consistent with other polling. It's not easy to recover from all the ridiculous things and the rapid inflation, the record inflation that we had under Joe Biden.

00:24:58

But we're in the process of doing that. Markets at record high. Two quarters ago, we had a 4. But should he acknowledge the pain that Americans are feeling? 4. 4% growth. We want to bring down prices. What world are you living in, Jim Jordan? And we're still doing the Biden blame. Donald Trump said, On day one, day one, I will bring down prices. Inflation is up, up, and it's higher than expected. We did the report, PCE, 3%, GDP, down 1. 4%, anemic. It's not good. We're in a jobs recession right now. What are we talking about here? Ai continues to take away people's jobs. These data centers, zero regulation that Trump supports, running rampant. We're going to see more job losses there. And then Donald Trump imposes a new tariff regime against the world. After the Supreme Court strikes down, Donald Trump's IEPA Tariffs, the emergency claim. There's an emergency. The trade deficit is an emergency. Canada is smuggling in all these drugs, and it's the same as Mexico and such. There's a national security emergency, so we need IEPA Tariffs against Canada and Mexico, and then the trade deficit with the rest of the world is its own emergency.

00:26:32

The Supreme Court said, No, you can't do that. And so Trump's response is, Oh, I guess I won. When the Supreme Court says, You lose Donald Trump. He's a predator. He's a sociopath. I won. You lost. So even though Donald Trump's lawyers argued, when they were asked by the Supreme Court, the Circuit Court, the Court of International Trade, Trump's lawyers were asked, Why don't you to invoke the Trade Act of 1974, Section 122? They said, We actually don't have that authority to invoke. This is what Trump's lawyer said, We don't have that authority because what we're claiming the emergency is trade deficits. And what Section 122 deals with is issues about currency and currency crises and monetary deficits where there could be run on a specific currency. There was the Brentwood. I'm not trying to do a boring professor lecture on the Brentwood system when the dollar was pegged to gold. And then after World War II, there was a run on gold. In the early years of Nixon, it was called the Nixon shock. They came up with this idea of how do you stop this massive currency dilution in the Brentwood system where the was fixed to gold.

00:28:01

It's not happening now. That's not a thing that's happening. Also, when Donald Trump says all of these countries are giving to the United States trillions of dollars, how could you be having this emergency for monetary deficits when you're claiming all these countries are giving you all of this money, just giving it to you. So Trump invokes Section 122 under the Trade Act of 1974 unlawfully to now impose 15% tariffs against the world, except he told the Trade Representative and our Commerce Department told the people collecting the levies, the document they were handed only says 10%. So Trump said 15%, and 10% is still high. But the actual levy right now was actually 10%. So people are like, What the hell is even going on? We don't even know what this It is. So Trump's lesson from the Supreme Court ruling is, Okay, I was able to institute my unlawful tariffs for what? 14 months without the Until the Supreme Court finally said no? Okay, so why don't I just do the same damn thing again? I'll find another law that doesn't say what I claim it says. I'll invoke it. I'll get sued. I will delay the lawsuit.

00:29:31

14 months will pass. I will lose, and then I'll find another one. By the way, this is Donald Trump's behavior before being in office. This is why he bankrupted so many companies. I'm not saying this as a partisan or as a political person. This is the type of behavior. This is why his casinos went bankrupt. This is why if there was a Guinness Book of on bankruptcies, he would be at the top. Why people think this guy is some good business person when he's gone bankrupt over and over and over? So many bankruptcies. I don't know. It just makes no sense. Oh, he's a businessman. He wrote the book The Art of the Deal. Are you really that stupid? Because he wrote a book called The Art of the Deal, You Think He's a Good Business Product? I don't know. I truly try to be empathetic, especially Especially as people are leaving MAGA. I really try to do it. I do my best and leave MAGA. Cults are hard to break. One of cult programming and de-programming is you go so far into a rabbit hole that you're afraid if you try to get back out of that rabbit hole, you humiliate everybody that you know.

00:30:54

You humiliate friend. You admit it. You humiliate yourself. You admitted that you were wrong all of these years and that you caused so much pain. That's why actually people go deeper into cults as opposed to it's so hard to get people out of cults. I get it. But I just don't get how you fall for this stick. The guy's whole life was loser. Again, you just look at the guy, and I'm saying this not politically, just objectively, the guy got daddy's money and he just would bankrupt things his whole life and just destroy people's lives. You're That's the guy. That's the guy, literally the worst guy. If you had my 16-month-old daughter, 17-month-old daughter, Emana, if she were running this country right now in her cute princess dress, she would do a significantly better job than Donald Trump would be because she would just want to play with Anna, and she would want to play with Elsa, and that's what she would want to do. If she played with Elsa and Anna and all of her toys, and that's what she did every day, the country would be phenomenally better, and she'd be known as one of the best presidents.

00:32:21

He meant it would be on Mount Rushmore right now. If you just let an autopilot Biden's economy, the state of the Union would be The state of Elsa and Anna and Tatiana would all be very strong. And Bell. All right, we'll take our... It was a reminder. How many people are in here right now, Jeremy? How many people are watching this live right now. 22,000 people are watching me talk about Blippy. She loves Blippy. Blippy? Can we play Blippy? The People's State of the Union. Oh, and don't get me started on Ms. Rachel. The People's State of the Union right here. I want you all to do blue heart emojis. If all 20,000 people here will be watching the People's State of the Union tonight here on the Midas Touch Network. Blue, not blue emojis. The 6 Million Emoji. Do the 6 Million Emoji if you're going to be watching the People State of the Union tonight here on the Midas Touch Network. Audible, the 6 Million. Let's use the 6 Million. We'll see you all here tonight. I'm not done with this show. We've got a lot more show to go. We're going to take our first and only quick break of the show.

00:33:38

We'll be right back. I want to talk about MAGA Republican Congress member, Gonzales, what's going on there? I I want to talk more about the MAGA Republicans cover up of the Epstein files. Take our first and only quick break of the show. Elbows up. We'll be right back. New year, new routines. But have you ever to think about what your shower water is doing to your skin and hair. Most people spend thousands every year on skincare and hair care, trying to fix dryness, breakouts, and dull hair without realizing the real problem starts before the products even go on. It's the quality of your shower water. That's where Jolie comes in. Jolie is a beauty wellness company with a clinically-proven filtered shower head designed to remove chlorine and heavy metals that can damage your skin and hair. It installs in minutes, fits all showers, looks great, delivers amazing pressure, and now starts at just $98. A small upgrade that can make a big difference in how your skin and hair feel all year long. Head to joleyskinco. Com/mitis to get yours. That's joleyskinco. Com/mitis. If you or your loved If someone doesn't love it, you can return it for a full refund within 60 days.

00:34:49

No questions asked. Also available on Amazon, start the year with better water. Get Joley for $98 today. Most of us are numb to it now, but wow, this has been a It's a wild ride. Ai is coming for jobs, tariffs and tax fights are shaking things up, and the market is swinging like it's had way too much coffee. It feels like near spastic economic uncertainty is just the new normal. Honestly, that's forced a lot of us to take matters into our own hands when it comes to protecting ourselves and our families. One of the smartest ways to do that is with better life insurance. I hate to say it, but if your policy is through work, you're probably underinsured, overpaying, and underprotected. That's why I'm looking at a new life insurance policy with SelectQuote. For over 40 years, SelectQuote has been one of the most trusted brokers in insurance, helping more than 2 million Americans secure over $700 billion in coverage. Their mission is simple: to find you the right insurance policy for your unique needs. They shop, you save. Unlike one-size-fits-all companies, SelectQuote's licensed agents work for you. In as little as 15 minutes, they compare policies from top-rated carriers to find you the best fit for your health and your budget, and they work for you for free.

00:35:59

No medical exam, no problem. Same day coverage, up to $2 million. Pre-existing conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, or heart disease, they've got options for that, too. Life insurance is never cheaper than it is today. Selectquoits, they shop, you save. Get the right insurance for you for less and save more than 50% at selectquote. Com/mitis. Save more than 50% on term life insurance at selectquote. Com/mitis today to get started. That's selectquote. Com/mitis, M-E-I-D-A-S. Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News. I'm Ben Meiselas, and this is Breaking News. I want to turn to this MAGA Republican Congress member, Gonzales, from Texas for a moment. District is Uvaldi, right by the Mexico US border right there. You remember this guy? He was the guy who was all in going after Matt Gates. And by the way, we should all go after Matt Gates. But he's saying, Look, Matt Gates is disgusting. She is. I serve with some real scumbags. And Matt Gates, he paid minors to have sex with him at drug parties. People were like, Oh, Tony Gonzales, go get a man, go get him. But MAGA Republicans are MAGA Republicans. Now we learn that Tony Gonzales was sexually harassing.

00:37:36

I want to be clear. An affair makes it sound consensual, although inappropriate. I don't like the term affair. He was sexually harassing, coercing a young female staff who worked for him named Regina Santos Aveliez. He was asking, this is in the text message, for anal? Anal? He would say. He would say, Send me naked photos of you. What positions do you like? She would say, Boss, I don't like this. Boss, please stop. Her husband found out. They got a divorce. We're in the process of getting one. The sexual harassment and the activity in question took place in 2024. She She then allegedly died by suicide from self-immolation. The story is, purportedly, that she sets herself on fire and kills herself by self immolation by burning herself to death. Then at the time, this MAGA Republican, Congress member, Gonzales, doesn't mention anything, acts normal. It's a tragedy, doesn't say that he was this predator who was going after her and continuing to coerce her and was the guy who destroyed her marriage. Just show you the clip of him. This was back from This was, what, 2024 or so, when he was making appearances to go after Matt Gates.

00:39:22

Here, let's play this clip of him. He will survive. Look, the house is a rough and rowdy place, but Mike Johnson is going to be just fine. I serve 20 years in the military. It's my absolute honor to be in Congress, but I serve with some real scumbags. Look, Matt Gates, he paid minors to have sex with him at drug parties. Bob Good, endorsed my opponent, a known neo-nazi. These people used to walk around with white hoods at night. Now, they're walking around with white hoods in the daytime. Meet mirror. Meet Mirror. It's It's baffling the ease with which these people do it, right? The ease with which these often mega men, but some MAGA women. But to be fair, Anna Paulina Luna, Nancy Mace, Lauren Bobert, they've been calling Gonzales out saying he needs to resign. The MAGA men are. The MAGA men are like that. But those three MAGA ladies, Congresswoman, they've been calling him out to resign. But It's a real... The Epstein class, man, they... Do they have... They don't feel. They don't have a human emotion. If I or you told a small lie, and it was like, Why did you do this?

00:40:55

Well, I was... Did you eat the candy that was out there? Did you eat that candy that was out there? No. You ate the candy, didn't you? Yeah, okay. A normal human reaction is to be like, right? To be like, Whatever. I mean, you'll have someone like Howard Lutnik in that weird voice of his say, I let you know when I saw Epstein in 2005, I was disgusted with him. He brought me into the room. I saw a massage table. I said, A massage table in the living room? What are you doing? He says, The good kinds of massages. I went to my wife and I said, That man is disgusting. Since that time, I never I had him for personal, for business, ever, because I knew what he was up to. Disgusting, disgusting. The interviewer said, What do you think he was doing? Blackmail. Blackmail. He would have people go to the island where horrible things would happen, and then he would blackmail him. It's disqualifying. Okay, well, the files come out. He's all over. You brought your children to the Petto Island. I just brought my children and my wife. So what? Well, first you said you knew First off, the fact that you brought them there.

00:42:48

Bad. Bringing children to the island where children are sex trafficked, bad. But then you also said you knew that that's what was happening. Then you brought your friend's children there also, and you're talking about nannies with each other, even though Epstein doesn't have children. Exchanging nannies, is that code? He gave you $50,000 for some award that you got in 2017. You did business deals together? So? So what that we've had years long business ties? So what? He's disgusting. You're a crazy person. You're literally crazy crazy people. Again, this isn't through a lens of, Oh, the democratic position. These are literally horrific humans. I don't even understand I don't even understand the conduct here. And by the way, we talked about this at the outset of the show. I'll do another video about it in the morning. But now we know that these accusations by minors against Donald Trump were just deleted, destroyed, or withheld by the Trump regime. And it wasn't even... I give a hat tip to NPR for finding it, but they did real work to find it. But at the bottom right-hand, they have Epstein Transparency Act, ETA-000, right, the Bates numbers.

00:44:20

Well, 50 of those Bates numbers, 50 of those pages are missing, and those are the ones where a minor accuses Donald Trump, apparently. Here's how Congress member Garcia described it earlier today. Let's play. Hey, everyone. It's Congress member Robert Garcia. As you know, we have been in a very serious investigation with the EPSI files. It appears that there are files that are missing from what the DOJ has produced that include very serious allegations about the President of the United States from a survivor. I know this because I myself just looked for these documents yesterday, and I'm going to show you something. This is a manifest document document, and it lists a series of interviews and documents that should be in the files. These highlighted documents are actually missing. Under our oversight subpoena, all of these documents, and under the new law, by Conna and Nassim, all of these documents have to be available to us unless there is some type of active investigation happening with these documents. What we have here is a survivor who has made serious allegations about the President, and now these documents are missing. Oversight Democrats are opening a parallel investigation into why these documents are missing, where they are.

00:45:42

Obviously, we know who the survivor is, but of course, they're also protecting that survivor's identity. And the DOJ needs to answer, why are they covering this up? And this White House cover-up needs to end. I mean, right in plain view, they're doing this. Right in plain view. I saw some people in the chat saying, this is where the military needs to step in and arrest these people. The issue is that that's why Donald Trump put in someone like Pete Hegset, someone who has numerous accusations against him. Pete Hegsy's own mom wrote to what, Hegsy's ex-wife and said, Yeah, my son's horrible, and he's all these horrible things. Then Hegsy's mommy had to go around to the senators, and she spoke to the senators, the Republican senators, to ensure they would vote for her son. How did the United States of America get to a place where mommy had to go around for her son after writing emails that came out during the discovery process or the process of the appointment hearings. And mommy had to go around for her son? I mean, how? And again, that's why when we talk about DEI, we talk about, didn't earn it.

00:47:14

Didn't earn it. Mommy had to show up for you? Really? That's where we're at. I mean, that's how I view these things. I never got into this. Actually, as a political person, my views, when I started to reflect on politics, started to I said, Okay, well, my views align with the label progressive. I've always been throughout my life someone who's voted for progressive candidates. Although when I was a lawyer, I never thought I never really even thought that much about politics. When I was a litigator, we represent different clients. They would be good, bad, Republican, Democrat. When you represent people, show up in court. Sometimes you more of a control over your case selection and the cases you pick. But sometimes as an associate, you just get cases. But I didn't view it through political lens. I don't view any of this through political lenses. I just look at the conduct and I'm like, this is abhorrent. And so, again, I don't view this as a Republican-Democrat issue, but Jennifer Griffin over at Fox, she's a good reporter there. She's actually a very good reporter, one of the very few good reporters. She does national...

00:48:35

She's on the national security beat. And she talked about a meeting that took place today. If you're wondering how I meander to talk about this, the comment was the military needs to arrest Trump, which I agree with, but the person leading it is Hegsieff, and that's why I'm getting here. At a high-stakes Pentagon meeting today, Secretary Hegsieff gave Anthropic head Dario Amodi an ultimatum, allow the Pentagon to use Anthropic's AI model for mass domestic surveillance and kinetic autonomous operations without human oversight or face censure and be labeled a supply chain threat. Now, pause there. The Pentagon doesn't dispute this. I don't care whether a Democrat or a Republican. The demand is that Anthropic, this AI company, give the government its AI model for the purpose of mass domestic surveillance. What does that mean? That means that when you're walking, when you're out and about, when you're doing things, we already know that there are cameras everywhere, right? That are probably filming you. But the government will be spying on you at every moment of the day. I'm not trying to be hyperbolic. You, watching this, if you're in the United States, if you travel to the United States, you will be under 24 hours surveillance.

00:50:14

The moment you walk out of your house using camera technology, using the AI technology, the various cameras that are out there, you will always be monitored. Okay, first off, why isn't that a front page story? Could you imagine if that was a plan from Obama, or if that was a plan from Biden, or if that was a plan from any president, the outrage that should be? I mean, heck, when we learned about certain types of wiretapping in surveillance programs, post Snowdon and things, it was a big deal. But here the government's just saying, We're going to do it. We're doing it. We're spying on all of you. And Terapeic, I guess to their credit, is saying, Look, we've developed this Clawd. It's called Clawd, this powerful AI tool. You can use our technology. You were able to use it successfully in Venezuela, and there's a lot of successful military operations. But we don't want our technology to be used for basically autonomous operations without human oversight. That just the AI decides when to kill kill people. They surveil on you, and then the AI determines, do they kill you or not or abroad? Again, I'm not being hyperbolic.

00:51:40

The government wants the AI monitoring you 24/7 and then being able to kill you or to be able to kill people abroad. And that technology to be implemented into drones and other things. And that the AI decides when someone dies or when someone... And All Anthropic has said is, Look, we'll give you the technology. We do defense work, but we're not going to do mass domestic surveillance because we think that's a crime to do that. We don't want our technology to be used that the AI determines when it kills somebody. I mean, imagine your ChatGPT to saying, Okay, I'm going to kill you now. That's what the government wants, the ChatGPT, to make the decision. So according to a source familiar, that meeting was cordial, not a dressing down, not a screaming match, all business. Hegsith praised Anthropik's product, but then said, If by Friday, Anthropic does not agree to the Pentagon's use of the model without restrictions, then Hegsith would terminate the contract and use the Defense Production Act to force Anthropic to comply and/or designate Anthropic a supply chain threat and national security risk. Jennifer Griffin says, Edit, both are mutually exclusive. You can't be a supply chain risk, but also invoke the Defense Production Act to say the country needs this product so much for national security that it will override any restriction put in place by the company that limits government access to the product.

00:53:19

Both cannot be true. At issue is Anthropics 2 stipulations that its advanced AI model currently used in the Pentagon's classified system is not for autonomous kinetic operations. Anthropic currently requires human oversight of autonomous operations when used to kill things for safety reasons because they don't know how the autonomous system will react and could even endanger soldiers using the models. Soldiers and others could lose control of the model and automatically start killing large groups without humans in the kill chain. Second, Anthropic bars its models from being used for mass domestic surveillance. Hegsith wants these restrictions lifted. According to a source familiar with the talks, Anthropic has never objected to the use of its models for legitimate military operations. It also told Hegsith it never complained to the Pentagon or Palantier about the use of its models in the Maduro raid. Senator Sanders, Bernie Sanders, told me once, Not once. He says it every time he's on me. He says it every speech he gives. The most important issues out there are often the issues that are being least discussed. When I host shows like this, when I'm out there speaking with people, when I'm out there asking you about the fears that you have, here's what I hear frequently, that you, the American people, feel psychologically tortured, living paycheck to paycheck, if you're lucky enough to have a paycheck, that you're unable to afford homes, you can't afford rent.

00:55:13

Maybe if you're lucky enough to have a home and your kid or grandkids are living with you, they can't even envision a future that's better than your future, and they can't afford to be able to leave the home with you if you're lucky enough to have a home. People are about AI replacing American jobs, especially AI that's not regulated. People are terrified, and rightfully so, of data centers going up in their communities, both in terms of the environmental hazards, the energy consumption, it's causing your energy bills to spike as well, and the use of the data centers as well. People All want health care to be a universal right. The Obama subsidies, while imperfect, were helpful. And the Affordable Care Act, while imperfect, allowed people to access health care who couldn't before. And health care is being ripped away from the American people by the Trump regime. People aren't falling for Trump's claim that he didn't rip away Medicaid because the trigger for when Medicaid gets lost by you is after the midterms are over so that the Trump regime can blame Democrats. You know that now. People aren't tricked. They know that that's what's happening right here.

00:56:40

People want to be able to work a job and be paid with dignity for the job that they work. People want to be able to have a good education, have a good education for their children and grandchildren. People also don't want to have a president who makes everything about themselves. And who's grifting and who's stealing from the American people. And people don't want this predatory Epstein class that's destroying their lives. I can elaborate more, but. I mean, I think also people do not want masked, ice and border patrol Gestapo torturing, terrorizing, and killing them in the streets of America. I can go on, but that's what the American people want. Rather than focusing on the gamification of politics, this one, down, Democrat, Republican, we should be focusing on the people. We should be focusing on just being real and authentic about how we feel. I'll just give you I'll give you an example just quickly as well. There's a lot of people, a lot of political pundits who are like, Look, I think that it's really bad messaging to criticize the men's hockey team for being there with Cash Patel and celebrating they won the gold.

00:58:27

Everybody likes the team winning and they won a gold medal. And don't criticize the team because that's bad for politics. Look, I don't think you have to spend... I don't think the fault completely or majority lives with the men's hockey team. I mean, you have Cash Patel going in there. They're celebrating. You have the FBI director. You have the FBI director behaving that way. These are, whatever. They see him there. They're celebrating. They get a call from the President. The President is saying things. They're at their all time high in their minds. But I also think that I don't have to think about everything from being a political messenger. I did not like. I did not like setting aside that I have a daughter. It doesn't matter if you're like, you want people like, Well, I'm a girl dad. Okay, I am. But whether I'm a girl dad or not, it doesn't matter. Okay, just morally, I did not like seeing the President and the men's hockey team, locking the female hockey team. I didn't like that. That is something that offends my morals and principles and values. So I can call that out. I don't have to belabor the point.

00:59:50

I'm not going to devote episodes to saying, The hockey team, the hockey team, the hockey team. I'm glad the American hockey team won the gold medal. I really am. But I do hope that there some reflection as well about the women's hockey team and the amount of time the women's hockey team worked for that gold. And they had an incredible tournament. And leaders and people with basic decency should be out there to acknowledge that. You can do all of the above. I don't have to be this political creature to channel everything to what's the best political message. I want to just let you know how I feel about these issues. And I think the American people are so sick and tired of even everything, whether it's Democrats as well being filtered through, what's the political message here? What's the right lens? How are we more persuasive? Did this ad move the needle by this amount of percentage points? Should we use this word or that word? Look, just be real and caring and react normally to how things are. If it offends you, if you see something, you say something. Be a grown up, be a being an adult.

01:01:01

Stand up against the bullying. Stand up against this. I did not like to see the incredible women's hockey team getting demean like that. I didn't. And so I can say that. I could also say congratulations to the men's hockey team. Congrats. I'm proud when the US wins gold medals. I am, objectively. And I'm proud of the Canadian hockey team. And I'm proud of the great work that Canadians have been doing internationally as well. I'm proud of Midas Canada and the great work that they're doing. All of these things can be true at the same time. I could be absolutely livid. I could be absolutely furious at what this authoritarian regime is doing here in the United States. We're going to call it out. We're not going to normalize it. We're not going to legitimize it. We're just going to let you know how we feel about these things. We're going to bring facts, facts, facts to this every Every step of the way. How many people here will be watching the people state of the Union in approximately two and a half hours or so, or three hours, two and a half hours? How many people will be watching the state of the Union?

01:02:15

Right here, 8 Eastern Time. How many people will be watching that? I'm excited to have everybody here watch it right on the Midas Touch Network. Do me a favor, if you can, tell friends, coworkers, family members, as soon as this episode ends, will you remind them for me? That's one of the best ways you could help. If you're like, Ben, how can we help you? We love the Midas Touch Network. Congrats on 6 million. What can we do? It'd be great sitting aside. If you're a member, if you're a subscriber, fantastic. But what you really can do right now, which would be incredibly helpful, right now, right this second, is to text message, email, tell people around you, Hey, you know we're boycotting that State of the Union, right? You know we're watching it on the Midas Touch Network YouTube channel. Here's the link. Here's their YouTube page. Will you all do me that favor and do that? If you commit to reaching out to 10 people right now about the Midas Touch State of the Union event, throw a blue emoji right now. If you can commit to me right now, you will tell 10 people about the Midas Touch People State of the Union event right now.

01:03:40

Let's see those blue emojis. Let's see those blue emojis right now. I know someone's saying, You guys need your own TV network. I'm working on it. I'm doing my best. I hit 6 million. The next is the TV network. The next is the TV network, okay? Someone's like, You need a TV to bring on Colbert and to bring on Kimmel. We're working on it. I'm going to do my... Once I hit 10 million subscribers, Midas Touch Network on TV, Midas Touch Network internationally, Midas Touch Network in Europe, in South America, in Mexico, in Africa, spreading the truth. All right, I'm making a... I'm told I'm making a lot of promises. I'm going to I set big goals. My producers are saying, you're setting a lot of promises. All right, here's my promise for you. Here's my promise for you right now. My promise for you right now is we're going to work every day as hard as we can to fight for the truth and to fight for democracy. How about that, Jeremy? I'll bring it down a notch to hear. All right, thank you, everybody, so much. For real, please tell people about tonight's event.

01:04:58

I want to make sure the audience is huge for it. And I'm really excited about this. Really, really excited about this event. Thank you all. I'm appreciative of you. I'm grateful for you. Thanks for helping us hit 6 million subscribers. Thanks for helping us hit 9 billion views. See you next time. Shout out, Midas & Mighty. See you tonight. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber for our sub stack at midasplus. Com. You'll get daily recap from Ron Filipkowski, add three episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content, only available at midasplus. Com. Amazon bietet allen frischgebackenen Eltern in den Logistikzentren extra Familienboni. So wie Anton, der gerade seine neugeborene Tochter im Arm hält. Ihr gluckson ist für ihn das schönste Geräusch der Welt. Das heißt, vielleicht ist das Geräusch das Schönste von allen. Sag mal, Nikola, hast du auch immer dieses Gefühl, bei der Steuererklärung mit einem Bein schon im Knast zu stehen? Boah, nee, gar nicht. Wieso Steuer ist so die Steuer-App, mit der ich wirklich nichts falsch machen kann? Wow, das heißt, damit ist alles sicher? Ja, genau. Wieso Steuer ist die Steuer-App, die dich versteht. Weil Steuer betrifft ja dein ganzes Leben.

01:06:23

Arbeit, Kinder, Partner. Du kannst nichts falsch machen. Stimmt. Nice. Fühlt sich gar nicht wie Steuern an. Steuern erledigt? Safe. Mit WISO Steuer. Jetzt kostenlos testen.

Episode description

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on breaking news from the day.

Select Quote: Save more than 50% at https://selectquote.com/meidas

Jolie: Head to https://jolieskinco.com/MEIDAS to get yours

Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts:

MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast

Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af

MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial

The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast

Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan

The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show

The Ken Harbaugh Show: https://meidasnews.com/tag/the-ken-harbaugh-show

Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54

On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman

Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices