Transcript of MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 8/7/26

We have so much to discuss on this episode of the Midas Touch podcast. You have Iran and Oman entering into a deal together without the United States for Iran's control over the Strait of Hormuz. This, as despite the corporate news and really much of the kind of news ecosystem not reporting on what's actually going down, Iran is still striking tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. The Houthis have advanced in an area of Yemen controlled by, uh, Saudi Arabian back government there. Um, you had, uh, other strikes taking place in the Red Sea. Iran is not backing down while the United States runs out of all of its weapons. We've now seen leaks at the highest level of our military to virtually every major news network. Now, they didn't have to leak it for us to know what was really going down because we've been studying the satellite footage of the various US bases and noting how the Iranian ballistic missile strikes were hitting all of its targets at the US bases, despite CENTCOM lying and saying that all of the ballistics were intercepted. So it was clear to us either our PAC-3 interceptors, our THAADs, our SM-23s and 6s from the Navy destroyers, either they're not working at all or we've run out.

And we speculated we ran out. So it's clear we've run out of our interceptors and offensive weapons as well, as well, like the ATACMS, those HIMARS.. And Trump doing to the Defense Department what he did to his casinos, bankrupting it and now going and begging for trillions of dollars more from the taxpayers that could be going to things, I don't know, like healthcare, education, making things more affordable. We'll cover that as well. Katie Fang had a major victory in court today. Federal Judge Sullivan ordering Trump's DOJ to appear in court on August 13th and to answer why they have repeatedly violated the court's order, including the court's most recent order in Katie Fang's case under the Epstein Transparency Act for the DOJ to turn over certain categories of documents. Why are you redacting the names of co-conspirators and claiming they are victims? Can you explain how these people are victims? Show us backup. Blanchard's like, well, we're just going to stand on the redactions.. And the court was like, that's not what I asked you. Why are these co-conspirators being treated as victims? Damn it. Answer it on August 13th. Then you had the court requesting a timeline when the DOJ would produce a redaction log or a privilege log for the millions of documents that are being withheld.

And why aren't you producing the FBI notes to those 302 reports Regarding the allegations against Donald Trump from an underage girl, why are you not producing those? Trump denies it. So just show us the notes. And then Blanche is like, well, because the notes are substantially similar to the 302 reports, we're not going to produce the notes. And the judge excoriated Blanche and Trump's DOJ. There's no substantially similar exception in the Epstein Transparency Act. I want you to answer for that on August 13th. Big developments there, right? We'll talk about that. The David Hearn case officially dismissed. Two-time Olympic canoeist who was framed, not just framed, lied, fabricated evidence. I guess he's framed in that it was Trump who did it. Right. You know, it's like the Scooby-Doo movie. It turns out it was Donald Trump the whole time.

Right.

Fabricated evidence against David Hearn. The Justice Department admitted the Department of Interior gave him fabricated evidence to push Trump's narrative. That the reflecting pool was damaged by vandals when it was because of Trump and Trump's crew of bad construction people. Also numerous other cases dismissed as well. And then the lot of legal updates as well in Virginia. The case that where a preliminary injunction was granted regarding the J6 anti-weaponization fund to block that. Well, now we've got the plaintiffs amending the— amending their complaint in order to block Trump's tax immunity in that Virginia case. Trump's already lost the preliminary injunction there on the anti-weaponization. And now the same plaintiffs are saying, look, this judge in the Southern District of Florida basically said this agreement was created with fraud, that it was created collusively, and that it's voided.. So therefore, this entire thing, including the tax immunity, should be voided. We want that to be a part of our preliminary injunction as well. So there's an amended complaint. We'll see what the judge does there. That and more on the Midas Touch podcast. Brett and Jordy, it's so good to see you. You know what?

I—

there's been a lot thrown at this community, this country, this world, but I actually feel right now as you see Donald Trump wearing what appears to be, what appears to be, I don't know, the new weird wig. You got Donald Trump out there looking desperate and tired and humiliated and damaged and broken as his approval plummets, as the American people and people of the world are standing up. I actually feel right now stronger than ever. I don't know about, I truly do. I feel right now there's a lot of momentum for those who want to fight back and say enough is enough.

I could not agree more. It's good to be here, Ben. Good to be here, Jordy. Good to be here, Midas Mighty. What was that thing on Donald Trump's head?

Can we start there?

Like, what the heck was going on there? I know a lot of people have been commenting on this, but just so completely bizarre. And, you know, something else that we saw, this was submitted to us from a Midas Touch viewer, this image from rural Tennessee, which, Ben, I think sums up exactly where we are at this moment. We got this picture from rural Tennessee of a Trump Superstore. And you could see the sign right behind the Trump Superstore, going out of business now, going out of business now. And doesn't that— isn't that so indicative of, first off, Donald Trump's entire life, but also where we're at right now with the Trump presidency, with the Trump regime, where it really feels like right now we're in a moment where a lot of these things are sort of coming to a head. The court cases, all the scams and grifts, everything is kind of now meeting that moment where it's all kind of collapsing. And it's all really humiliating for Donald Trump. And there have been reports that kind of for the first time, uh, in a while, Donald Trump has really been seething in humiliation as everything around him is really just failing.

And the humiliation from the Reflecting Pool case that he went all in on, the humiliation from the Iran war with us losing all of our munitions, using them all up. Everywhere you look, what Donald Trump's doing has been a complete and utter failure. And I think it's finally sinking in a little bit with him, and he's getting a little bit of a dose of reality when his handlers allow that dose of reality to set in. We're going to cover it all, but first we got to go to Jordy. Jordy, what's the latest?

Brothers, mighty, mighty. It is wonderful to be here tonight. And Brett, Ben, I, I agree with you guys so much here. This, this vibe shift, if you will, really feels apparent, at least in this idea of, um, accountability, or what accountability can look like. I know just from my inner circles out here where I live, like people are getting energized the closer and closer we're getting to midterms. Also about what foreseeable accountability could be. Look, don't get me wrong, I'm not here to advocate for one party or another, but I think the likelihood that the Dems retake Congress is pretty high. And so it's going to be pretty interesting to see as these court cases unfolding currently are failing miserably for Donald Trump. What accountability looks like in the next steps as investigations get launched, as hearings get launched, because again, the party that controls, they ultimately determine really how and how this stuff plays out and in what context it plays out and who they can call in to these hearings. And it's going to be very interesting to see nonetheless if the Democrats are able to take back what that looks like and if we will get some real accountability down in these coming months.

Benji, Brett, excited for the show. Where are we starting off today, big bro?

Look at Donald Trump's frantic posting earlier today. He writes, for our great Republican senators, friends of mine all, please be advised that the Communist Democrat Senate candidate from Michigan, and then he says El-Sayed, is touting, as prayed, is the full name, is perhaps his single most important point, the termination of the filibuster. I watched it yesterday and he's gone termination crazy. If he succeeds, the Democrats will gain 4 senators, 8 congressmen, many electoral and popular votes, a stacked Supreme Court with 23 justices. And I will be, sadly, despite the great job we are doing, the last Republican president, Donald J. Trump. So much—

sounds kind of like an endorsement.

It is an endorsement, but it's also so much whining. And again, whether you're Democrat, Republican, independent, it's really sad to have such a loser, such a loser in the Oval Office. I mean, you've got Iran mocking him. M.B. Ghalibaf posting the following. He's the basically the top civilian position in Iran. He's their parliament leader. He goes, massive attack coming. Wait, never mind, they want to negotiate. That's theater diplomacy on loop. Using bullying, broken promises, fake news as leverage is a failed strategy. Acknowledge the facts and fulfill your commitments. We don't need more theater. Iran, which has essentially now become a global power— not essentially, has become a global power. It's basically wagging its finger at a weak and pathetic United States under Donald Trump and saying, we don't need this drama. We don't need this theater. We know you're out of weapons. We know. So just shh, shh, be quiet, be quiet. That's how the United States gets talked to now. It's worse than being laughed at. Shh, get outta here. The adults are in the room. Shh, think about that. That's what the United States has become. It's worse than when Donald Trump says the world is laughing at us.

No, we're getting shushed. Just get out of here. We, we got to do this deal with Oman because we have to actually deal with real issues. It's really— if you don't feel humiliated as an American right now You're not patriotic. You're not a real patriot because any actual patriotic American would look at this and go, oh my God, oh my God, this is pathetic. I can't tolerate this level of pathetic being, not as a Democrat, not as a Republican, not as an independent. I just, I don't, what, what, what is this? Oh, I'm doing a great negotiation with them and I'm gonna, it's gonna be worse than World War II, everybody. We're dealing with Oman, okay?

Okay.

That's where we are as a country. Oh, the Democrats!

The Democrats!

The communists! The Democrats coming! Shut up.

Shut up.

And I think that's honestly how many people feel about it. It's like, it's enough. We don't need that. We don't want this. Just be quiet. Be quiet there.

We—

you know what, why don't you try on a new wig or whatever you're doing and, and go away, you know? Get it, get it. And this is a real photo of him. We have another photo that's not a real photo, but this is a real photo of him right there. That's one of them. That's a MAGA devil dog. I think this actually comes from a pro-Trump account. I don't even know if this account is pro-Trump, but whoever did this, I think it is. I think it's a pro. This is one crack. But anyway, go I do that. That's what it really looks like. It's not actually— it's not actually that far off. Um, and so you've got Donald Trump right now, um, in the Oval Office before we went live. This is how he behaves.

He's easy.

One of the things he posted last night is, we're not running out of munitions, everything's great, we can get munitions from other places. He goes, the U.S. has massive amounts of munitions, especially of certain types. Additionally, large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. as needed. Defense companies are are building the largest number of plants and factories in our country's history. The leakers of these treasonous statements are being hunted down. Long-term jail sentences will be sought. Hunting them down. They're getting hunted, everybody. Everyone's going to be hunted, hunted, hunted, hunted.

It's fake news. But also, we need to get the leakers who leaked this information. But it's also fake information and completely fiction. But we also have to get the people who leaked this very sensitive information that no one's supposed to know to the public.

And again, it's MAGA logic for you. Yeah, perfect.

So then he's in the Oval Office right over here, and he's asked, you posted overnight that the US has a massive amount of munitions and you denied any shortages, so why are you demanding $21 billion to restock? Why is that necessary? Here, let's play this clip. President, on munitions, you, uh, posted overnight that the US has a massive amount, and you denied that there were any shortages.

There is a supplemental request for $21 billion to restock.

So why is that request still there?

Well, because we need more all the time and we need more. Look, we gave tremendous amount to Ukraine. The Biden people did, and they were given free of charge. No, no charge. No charge. Billions. Hundreds of billions of dollars. And fortunately, I built up so much during my term. I rebuilt the military and also loaded it up with a lot of stuff. We have certain types of munitions that are very powerful, that we have unlimited, virtual unlimited supply. We have others where it's a little bit tighter.

Virtually unlimited, you know, the unlimited supply. But then it's Biden's fault and it's Ukraine's fault. It's everybody's fault but his own fault. Brad, it's every— you might be muted.

It's everybody's fault. Yeah, it's, it's all gone, but also it's unlimited, but also we ran out of weapons and Biden did it, but also I built it back up, but we have unlimited weapons, but actually too many were given to Ukraine.

Remember, you put it on, you get unlimited ammo, unlimited everything. Of course, yeah, the unlimited weapons. Of course, all you have to do is go left, left, left, right, right, right, left, left, up, up, down, up, down, left, right, right, right, and then you get unlimited. We all know that that's how you get unlimited weapons.

Um, the gamer in Ben comes out. Look at that.

Uh, question: Russia seems to have increased their attacks on civilian targets. Is that a concern to you? That must be concerning that Russia has been escalating its attack on civilians. Here, play this clip.

Russia seems to have increased their attacks on civilians.

I know that.

That must be of concern to you, Mr. President.

Well, it's— look, we're not involved from the standpoint— it's, uh, we're separated by an ocean. But I hate to see 25,000 young people a month get killed, and that's what's happening between Russia and Ukraine. They're losing on average 25,000, mostly soldiers, a month. And, you know, we're working on it and I think we're making progress. But it's a violent, very violent war. There's a lot of hatred in that war, a lot of hatred between the two leaders. I settled 8 wars. I thought this would be maybe one of the easier ones, and it turned out to be the most difficult. But progress is being made.

You promised on day one after the election, before you were even sworn into office, you said on day one that you would bring peace. You had such a great relationship. And also the question was a very basic one. It must be concerning you. And let's be clear what's happening. Trump promised Zelensky at first Patriot interceptors that he was going to sell to Europe and that Europe would then provide it to Zelensky. Then Trump didn't provide the interceptors to Europe and NATO after promising that. So then at the NATO summit, Trump promised in public— it's not ambiguous— Zelensky was sitting there, Trump was sitting there, and Trump said, I'm going to give you the interceptor licenses so you can make them on your own. And then Zelensky met with Trump 2 weeks ago at the White House. He met with Lockheed that makes these interceptors to get the license. And then Trump rug pulled them and said, I'm not going to give you the license. I'm just not going to do it. Sorry, I can't do it. So you have to wonder, what was Donald Trump and Putin— what were they talking about on July 4th when Trump and Putin spoke for 90 minutes?

Were they talking about potentially, well, hey Donald, why don't you find out what their vulnerabilities are? Why don't you just drag him along a little bit, buy us about 30 to 45 days so we can increase our ballistic missile arsenal, and then they won't have any way to stop it, and then that's how we'll get a deal Donald, because they won't be able to stop the ballistics and we can just hit any targets at will. At this point, I, I don't want to be hyperbolic. I don't want to create unnecessary fear, but it's actually a pretty dire situation for Ukraine right now if you follow what's happening, solely because of the ballistics. And that's, that's not me in any way criticizing the leadership or the ability of their army to fight. I got very nervous when Laura Loomer got involved. Actually, that was one of the red flags for me about what was going on when Loomer was involved and all these MAGA people seemed— and I was telling them, I go, that doesn't feel right with me. And that also kind of coincided with Trump tapping Zelensky along and making Zelensky feel like he was going to get these interceptor licenses.

But the real big problem is not what's going on in the front of the war where Ukraine is holding its ground and making progress. The issue is, is that Ukraine has a 0% interception rate of the Russian ballistics. That means every Russian ballistic hits its target. That means nearly a million square feet of warehouses have been destroyed by Russia, all in a very— 500,000 of that has been destroyed like since July. Any night that Iran wants to rain down on certain areas, it just does salvos of 20, 30 ballistics, and everybody, every one of them hits their target. Zelensky has a 90% interception rate with drones, close to that with cruise missiles, a little less ballistics at 0%, because you literally need the interceptors in order to, um, in order to stop the ballistics. So that's what's going on. So the next question is, Zelensky says his country desperately needs long-range missiles. What do you make of that? Let's watch Trump's response.

Let's play it.

Mr.

President, On Ukraine, President Zelensky says his country desperately needs long-range missiles or those Patriot missile batteries.

Is that something that—

well, I mean, we want missiles too. You know, we— when Biden gave him so much, Biden gave $300 billion worth of ammunition.

And again, we need missiles too. But you just said literally 2 minutes before that, that we have all— we have unlimited ammo. If we have unlimited ammo, then why do we need it? We don't have it. And look, one of the reasons that we're not giving it to Zelensky is because we've run out, and it's embarrassing, and we can't sell it to Europe because we don't have it for ourselves. We don't have it for the Arab nations. We don't have it for Asia. We ran out. We're out.

It's done.

Not just like the stockpiles are low, like we're out. But the other reason I believe is that this is how Donald Trump believes a deal is going to get done. Which is what he's always thought, which is let Putin pummel Zelensky and eventually Zelensky will tap out. And I worry that if you look at some of the moves that are happening behind the scenes in Ukraine— they got rid of their defense secretary Fedorov, and then they replaced him with somebody else. They got rid of their commander-in-chief because he said get rid of Fedorov. You've got a lot, you've got a lot going there, going on there, that despite, I think, the incredible work on the front and pushing forward. If they don't get these interceptor licenses or any way to defend against these ballistics, this is going to be every other day we're going to see a massive, uh, ballistic salvo. Um, and it's deeply concerning. Let me— I'll toss it over to Britain.

Jordy?

Yeah, well, you know, there's been a lot of conversation, and rightfully so, about the economic effects of the war and, uh, other things stemming from the war in, in terms of those respects, you know, oil markets, treasury yields, stock market, things like that, gas prices. But there are all these other kind of national defense and geopolitical ramifications from the war that are talked about far less. And the implications for this war and what's happening in Ukraine is, is certainly one of them. Uh, what our relationship with China is one of them right now. All these countries around the world know exactly what's going on in the United States. And frankly, it didn't take the leakers, as Trump wants to describe them as, in order to sound the alarm about these low munition stockpiles. I mean, we've been reporting on these low munitions now for, for months, the dwindling munitions, and going, it's getting lower, it's getting lower, it's getting lower, the same way we've been reporting on tank bottom with the oil markets. And then eventually it comes around and it gets confirmed by these, you know, quote-unquote leakers, and everyone goes, holy crap, how did this happen?

And we've been following it the whole time. We've been looking at the numbers, we've been looking at the data, we've been seeing what's been happening. And if we know that here on the Midas Touch podcast, I could assure you Russia knows that. I could assure you China knows that. I could assure you country Iran knows that. I could assure you countries throughout the world all know exactly what's going on. And that puts the United States and our allies in a very precarious situation. And if Donald Trump's strategy right now is we're just going to continue to do the same thing that we've been doing, you know, that kind of, uh, what they say is insanity, trying the same thing with no different results— if we're just going to keep trying that over and over, we're We're just going to bomb them into submission. Well, eventually the munitions run out. Eventually the defense, the interceptors, eventually that runs out. It's not a video game. You can't pull some crypto scheme to all of a sudden build fake value or fake weapons for your military. When you use them, they're done. And it's not like they take very fast to rebuild.

It takes a while to rebuild these weapons that we're wasting. And that's the issue when you have these people like a Hegseth, like a Donald Trump, who go out there and just try to burn it all down and try to act all tough and try to say, oh, we're just gonna bomb them and this and do that. There's no thought behind it. That's why you need actual smart people, because you need people who actually are viewing things based on strategy, not like this is a video game, not like we have unlimited munitions, not like we could just keep bombing, bombing, bombing, bombing and show American power or whatever the hell they want to call it. It's really showing our weakness and it's showing the stupidity right now of the people in charge. So it's no surprise there is a major crisis in the Pentagon right now. I don't know how this gets better. And, and I can vouch for Ben that he was saying when Laura Loomer was with Zelensky Zelensky in Ukraine, everyone was going, I don't think this is a good thing. I don't think this is a good thing. And you were sounding the alarm right here that Donald Trump's kind of fake offer to Ukraine weeks and weeks ago at this point was a red herring, that we shouldn't trust it, that we should not believe, and that the mainstream media and people in general should not be putting their faith in Donald Trump.

He is not a dealmaker. He is a fraud, and he will dangle things to people and then he'll take it away for his own, uh, benefit, and he'll screw you over. And so Zelensky, if he thought that he was going to get a deal Donald Trump here from playing nice with Laura Loomer or playing nice with these people. I mean, he ended up getting fooled at the end of the day. Hopefully he knows better than that. But right now it's a shame to see everyone in a precarious situation, including us here, including the United States.

Yeah, Ben's spidey sense went off in full effect when that Loomer video dropped. Words have to mean something like words and promises. I feel like they used to mean something. Maybe I'm sort of romanticizing the past a little bit, but like when the president said he was going to do something and made promises to other world leaders, I feel like they followed through on those promises. I could be mistaken. I'm happy for anyone to point it out. Any time Donald Trump opens his mouth, you can't take what he's saying at face value. You know, when he said that he'd even end the war on day one, like that was the big campaign thing, right? When he was running for this reelection bid over here, he's now gone back on that. A couple of months ago, I was being sarcastic. Oh, that was my— you couldn't sense my sarcasm. Them when I said I was going to end the war on day one? It's immensely frustrating as you see Donald Trump go further and further into the conflicts abroad and also understand the ramifications that it's going to have here on the economy, that Donald Trump doesn't care about our nation's debt.

And so in his mind, Brett, I, I think he does think that he'll just keep borrowing money and just like that, those munitions, they'll be made because he, because he took the because, because we got the money, that there is no strategic foresight here as far as, oh no, there's actually like plans and steps that have to go into just getting more munitions for this war, that they just don't appear overnight. But what Donald Trump has been good at, and I don't say that in a good way, has been taking people's money with no outcome for the masses to sort of follow. And that is a similar pattern pattern that I think we're going to be falling into here, where sooner or later he's just going to ask for more money for the war. More money. We've already seen it. It's gonna— it's there.

They're already asking, right? They're already— they're already at $1.5 trillion. I mean, the guy couldn't even build a helipad at the White House. They, they spent all these millions of dollars building a helipad, then they had to take it, tear it all down, redo it. Just another renovation project, uh, that they continue to screw up. I mean, the folks who we have right now in the White House are, are a total disaster. And I know I'm not giving any new news to you by saying that, uh, but you know, I almost wish we could see like the alternate reality where there was a Kamala Harris presidency or a second Joe Biden term or something, because everyone likes to pretend that, you know, both sides are the same here. And I'm not going to pretend that everything was all amazing, you know, under Biden, but I could tell you it certainly was not the hell that they're trying to describe it as, and it was significantly better. And if you just literally followed the policies that were laid out, you'd have a stronger NATO, you'd have Ukraine being protected, You wouldn't have this war in Iran.

You have a stock market continuing to rise without all of this volatility. You would have the yields at normal levels, not spiking to crazy amounts. You would have stability in the world. You'd have the United States as a leader on the world stage, Canada liking us. You'd have our institutions remaining built. You'd have a working Department of Justice actually focused on criminals and not bailing out criminals and give them billions of your dollars. There you'd have more transparency on Epstein. I, I mean, it's literally— you could go with every single issue would be significantly better. And it's not even a question. And anybody who denies that to me, you're just not being intellectually honest.

And that's why you need leaders who are going to lead, that are actually going to make this country better for everyone and not just themselves. I think Donald Trump, it's abundantly clear to me actually that he's grappling with his own mortality. That's the Golden Arch. That's the reflecting pool. That's the memorials. It's renaming the buildings that Donald Trump is in here for some sort of perceived legacy play where he wants his name and his aura to live on post-Trump presidency, post-Trump whatever existence. And where we are right now, that's how he's leading. There's no, again, foresight here as far as how and how we actually get out of this in a way that sustains the economy, that's better for the American people, that's better for the troops, that's better for just everyone involved. Donald Trump is only looking at this as how How can this benefit me and how can I get out of this in a way that benefits me the most? And it's why I worry about the nuclear option here.

Right.

Like Donald Trump has already said, they're going to see things like they haven't seen since World War II. We obviously know what he's referring to there. And I don't rule that out. And I'm not saying that for clicks and I'm not saying it, you know, to like be jokey here. I genuinely think he does not care about the ramifications should he proceed with that matter.

Let's take our first quick break of the show. A reminder, our new book comes out— our first book comes out October 20th. Pre-order it now. Our publisher has, you know, emphasized to us the pre-orders are one of the most important things. It helps us promote the book better, it helps us decide where we're going to go on the book tour, and it's a real difference maker. They say there's a lot of great momentum around the order. So pre-order it right now. You can scan the QR code, you could do a link in the description below, or you could do the old-fashioned way— Google. You can Google WTF America.

Did you just break some news, Ben, about a little book tour? Felt like a little news-breaking moment right there. Usually I cough it up.

I think, I think, I think we've said it. All right, let's take our first quick break of the show. We'll be right back.

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Don't fix what ain't broke, you know?

I like it and I know it really well, but I don't know if I'm annoying people by saying the same thing. So I'm gonna mix it up. Benji, what do you think and where do you want to go next?

Where do I want to go next, Jordy? I think all your ideas are great. Let's talk about Trump in the Oval. He was asked, do you believe Max Miller should withdraw from his race? Um, obviously you've seen the very serious allegations of abuse against Max Miller, that he abused his wife for allegations, his daughter, uh, that he's abused two other girlfriends. Uh, his former father-in-law, Senator Moreno of Ohio, said that Max Miller is someone who's sick and needs to resign. You've heard other Republican senators talk to the Midas Touch Network actually and say that Max Miller needs to resign and be out. Even Max Miller's behavior in the interviews on Jake Tapper on Newsmax and others have been really kind of sick and demented. He's like released— he's released these like photo— this— these images and these photos, which then his, um, uh, ex-wife, uh, has said— lawyer basically said, you know, you released like nude photos of our little girl, which is like sexual child sex abuse content. And then it's like, then his lawyer said, we inadvertently released the material, we didn't mean to like release the photo that shows that. And then, you know, you see these text messages that his ex-wife released.

And his ex-wife, someone who's really big in the conservative— was big in the conservative movement, too, as the daughter of Senator Moreno. And they were like, you know, holding the little baby girl's bunny hostage. And then Max Miller would release more of like their private text, like putting all their stuff out there. And the whole thing is really, you know, it's very disturbing. This isn't a Democrat or Republican or an independent thing. This is, this is just an abhorrent thing. And one of the things that Max Miller cites why he stays in is he models his behavior off of Trump. He goes, I'm just like Trump. We both had allegations from women. We both are strong. This is how we respond to allegations. Max Miller said in the interviews, he said, Donald called me and said, Maxie, it's going to be tough for you, Maxie, but I'm with you, Maxie. That, that's how he said. And we've heard Trump say, I've, you know, I'm not going to get involved in this. We've heard MAGA Mike Johnson basically support Max Miller.

And by the way, that's, that to me, you know, while this situation isn't necessarily a Democrat, Republican, or independent thing, this response to it certainly feels like a Republican thing to me. When you have MAGA Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, being like, yeah, I don't know, you know, that's just between him and his family. I'm not going to— I'm not going to do anything. He's got my back. I got his back. You know, if he needs it, you know, whatever, whatever, whatever he wants to do. I can't— I can't control all my people here. I mean, you know, they're going to have their own lives. Like, really? Really? And these are the same people who, you know, were so forceful with Graham Plattner. And, you know, any time there's also like any sort of little kind of scandal on the Democratic side, and typically the Democratic Party takes care of that stuff, Republicans are going all in right now on, on Max Miller. And it's truly like it's disturbing stuff. Everything that Max Miller releases, the text that Ben was speaking about, he just keeps stepping in it further. Also, as Ben explained, the CSAM material, but also, uh, you know, just every text that he's trying to put out there to kind of quote unquote clear his name ends up actually showing that a lot of these allegations are actually for real.

Like, you, you see what people are accusing him of in the text messages. And he— I think, in my opinion, he has this sort sort of abuser mindset that he kind of permeates throughout all of this stuff, that when you see it, like, he doesn't even almost like realize what he's saying. But the language that he uses is kind of textbook and it's incredibly disturbing. But here was— here was Donald Trump today in the Oval being asked about it.

Mr. President, the deadline for Representative Max Miller to withdraw from his race is coming up next week.

Do you believe he Well, I'm not going to get involved in that.

It's a very sad situation, and, uh, I know Max very well, but it's very, very sad that a situation like that takes place.

And going back to something I talk about a lot—

leadership.

You're in a position of leadership. It's not a Democrat or Republican thing. You are a leader. And he doesn't behave like that. He never takes accountability for anything. And whenever there's something difficult and it doesn't immediately go his way, he backs out and he runs away from it. I mean, you take a look at BBC and what's going on over there, right? And Trump's scared of BBC, clearly.

They—

but he got bailed out by a judge that he appointed when he was 36 years old, this judge. And so, you know, you all know the story there. Trump sues BBC. For some documentary that never aired in the United States. And Trump said this documentary by the BBC, which like nobody saw, didn't air in the US— Panorama—

got like no people saw it in the UK. It's a bit— it's a big show in the UK.

It's not in the United States.

Not in the United States.

I mean, saying— he's saying the UK. How many did it get? Any views in the United States? It wasn't even in the US.

No, I wasn't broadcasting the United States. Panorama's You know, I lived in London. Panorama's a—

let me just tell that BBC story.

Okay.

You know, you know everything about Panorama. Okay. In the United States, I'll be very geographically specific.

Okay.

As I'm trying to deal with the facts here, Ben, I'll deal with the— I'll deal with the BBC Trump facts. Okay. Then Trump sues them. They respond by saying, let's get discovery.

Okay.

You know, you, you said $10 billion in damages. All right. Show me where you're damaged $10 billion. Okay. I mean, you filed the lawsuit. What does Trump do? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not going to show you. Then they get an order from a magistrate judge who handles discovery. And then Donald— and then the judge says, turn it over. And then rather than turn it over, Trump files an emergency. Emergency says there's an emergency. What's the emergency? We're going to file a new complaint. Well, the deadline to file a complaint was March, so you missed the deadline, but it's an emergency now. I can't turn these documents over.

You sued.

No one forced you to sue BBC. For $10 billion and claim that your corporations were damaged. So now you're going to have to turn over your corporation documents. $10 billion. You didn't say $1,000. So he's like, no, no, I want to amend my complaint and say it was just reputation harm. Your reputation was harmed and you're saying $10 billion of damage and that I want to amend that. I want to change. I want a do-over. Well, the magistrate judge ruled against Donald Trump, but Trump showed that he was scared of BBC there. And then he goes to the Trump-appointed judge who's the judge in Southern District of Florida who Trump appointed in 2019. And the guy goes, you raise good arguments there. Okay, I'll give you a participation trophy. We'll probably allow you to amend your complaint so you can now just say it was your reputation that was harmed, Donald. And by the way, Trump ain't winning. The judge ain't winning. The United States is losing. Nobody's winning from this behavior. To see a cowardly human being sue for $10 billion because he's so soft that his reputation is harmed. He's so soft that that's why he goes after BBC and then BBC scares him.

And then he's like, oh no, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. And the issues get bigger than this because think about it.

If you're—

you don't think Iran studies this behavior that our allies and enemies and everyone's— they, they have a pathological profile on the malignant narcissist that ultimately shows when you really come down to it, he's a weak loser. That's what they all have decided.

They've all—

this guy's a loser, he's a reject, he's a pathetic weasel, he's just, he's just a whiner, he's just a complainer, he's a failure, he's a failure of a human. So you push back, push back, push back, and then he gives up. That's what everyone sees. He pushed me. Don't get me wrong. He's now co-opted, hijacked the United States of America. So he's got— it's not like he can't inflict damage. He's inflicted real damage in Iran. I'm not trying to paint some rosy picture that like, you know, it's nothing. No, he's caused harm here. He's kicking off people from food stamps who needed— 100,000 people recently kicked off in Arizona, 450,000 people total. That's what they're bringing to state after state. They saying the little children who are on food stamps are committing fraud. Now, this guy is a wrecking ball. He can cause a lot of damage with, with his behavior, and he has caused a lot of damage. He's made all these affordability issues even worse. He screwed up everything here. But ultimately what it comes down to is the guy's a loser and he runs from BBC. He runs away from Iran. He runs away from a difficult day.

That you may have to do, which is if you called out Max Miller, who, by the way, is now trailing significantly in the polls in that House district in Ohio.

Good.

That'll be— that gets him out of the race, by the way. Not all this. Yeah, screwed up.

But you know what? You may have to figure out a plan, maybe replace them. I don't know, come up with something else, you know. But that's— to me, some of these things come down to— all of these things often come down to be an adult, be a grownup, own up, be a leader, behave with dignity, like at that level, just that, just that. I mean, you know, he's asked in the Oval Office, has a deal been reached to reopen the Strait of Hormuz? Has a deal been reached? The very nature of this question— Trump's not involved even in the con— the Trump regime has been sidelined. They're not involved in this at all right now. They're not. How do we know that? Are they in Qatar? Qatar? Are they in Pakistan? Are they— no, they're not involved in any of this. Nothing. It is purely Iran and Oman. That is it right now. And Trump wants to take credit for that deal that will give Iran control over the Strait of Hormuz. Say, look, I did a deal. I did one. I took a look at what I did, everybody. Look at what Trump says when he's asked, has a deal been reached?

Let's play. Has a deal been reached to reopen the Strait of Hormuz?

Well, I don't want to say it has been. It sort open right now. You know, we have a thing called the blockade headed up by the US Navy, and we control it. And, uh, now we control it, but they can always shoot something. They always have something or drop a mine.

We don't control it. It's a stupid thing to say.

Remember how this week began, by the way? The week began with all the headlines across all the papers saying Scott Bessant says a deal on the Strait of Hormuz is coming tomorrow. Like, I don't know why, like, people just forget this stuff. Like, they just move on.

He said that.

That was like the I believe Monday. And so the markets open and they go crazy. Like, all the stock— this US stock market goes nuts off of this fake comment that Scott Bessett made. And it's not like it's the first time they've done this. They keep doing this all the time. They say, oh yeah, deal's around the corner, a deal's going tomorrow, there's going to be a deal tomorrow. And this stuff, they still react to their comment. Like, like, how do you take anything these people say seriously? And as Ben said, the entire premise of the question is incorrect because the United States isn't even involved right now in these negotiations. It's between Iran and Oman. And the Iranian news sources right now are also saying that they're trying to figure out, you know, their way of opening the strait, which is going to formalize Iranian and Omani control of the straits, have some sort of tolling system, perhaps some sort of other authorities that they did not have prior to this war, making sure that they have complete and full control over it and that the United States does not, and that everybody has to go through them.

I mean, that's worse.

That's like horrific. That's, that's the worst case scenario. Yet Trump just gets these questions like he's gonna have a deal tomorrow and everybody reacts like it's like the greatest thing ever. I feel like I'm like, I feel like I'm going nuts sometimes when I watch this stuff.

Could we also just comment quickly on the fact that like, do y'all find it strange that every time he answers a question during one of these formats that he's constantly just covering his hand? Like he, he can't answer questions without covering that hand. He is deeply insecure about what's happening and I just think it needs to be a bigger issue. Like I think people need to be be like, what are you doing? It's, it's, it's objectively an odd way for someone to answer 100 questions, like, while they're sitting down, is to just— yes, exactly— is to cup one of their hands behind another for the duration of the Q&A process.

I couldn't agree more with you, Jordy. Let's take a look more at what he's doing. Before going what he's doing in the Oval Office, I'll show you one more. This is what he says on a fourth— the big issue everybody's going renting, and the cost of living is impossible in the United States. People can't afford homes. He ran on affordability. Now he claims it's a made-up word. He promised electricity prices would be cut in half, gas would be under $2, everybody would be having homes, things would be amazing. And then he's asked, what's your message on affordability? Pretty basic question right here.

Let's play this clip.

Republicans are arguing a lot right now about affordability.

What is your message on affordability going into the midterms?

Well, That's a good question, but it's sort of simple to answer. I inherited the highest prices ever. I inherited the worst inflation in the history of our country, and we have done an amazing job.

Okay.

And again, it's like you haven't done an amazing job. Stop whining about what you inherited. Inflation was going down. Inflation was heading towards 2%. We know the reality of it, and it's just like you're in it 2 years Now, can I share some other midterm messaging, uh, with the, uh, with, with everybody here, with you, Ben and Jordy and Midas Mighty?

Uh, so let's, let's go. I just want to go quickly from Donald Trump's fantastic midterm messaging, uh, about affordability there and highlight a comment that I actually haven't seen got all that much attention today. And this is from, uh, Dan Crenshaw, uh, just to show you like what, uh, people on the right are, are saying in general. Uh, Dan Crenshaw was responding to there was a right-wing influencer. Right-wing influencers have been, um, coming out now and saying things like they gotta— like, Trump really needs to focus on this affordability thing, like things are so expensive. And there was one influencer like yesterday who said something like, I just bought a burrito and it cost me like $25. And so this was Dan Crenshaw's response. This is the GOP message on affordability. He said, just hearing about this dumb $20 burrito to pay debate. So just thought I'd make the losers on social media angry before going to bed. Stop whining, get a job, eat ramen like the rest of us did in college on a budget with 4 roommates. The market doesn't care what you think something should cost. Only communists care. Are you a communist or are you an American adult male capable of handling his own shit?

Wow.

Inspiring midterm messaging from the Republicans.

That's their message on affordability. Get a job. Get it. You're not working hard enough. You don't have enough jobs. You don't— you're not working hard enough.

You need more jobs. You need more ramen. More jobs.

More ramen. More jobs. More ramen. More roommates. That's their affordability message.

Anything else is communism.

Here's a guy who said on day one, here's what I was going to do. Here's the promise. I mean, it's very clear what he said was going to— on day one, no I'm going to end. I know Zelensky. I know Putin.

I don't think it was clear. He said sarcasm. Corporate media said he's being sarcastic.

Easy, easy. Electricity prices, this would be down in half. You know, it's why when I spoke to Senator Sanders, Bernie Sanders, you know, he and I were both saying, you know, Donald Trump, when he says he'd make the greatest communist like Lenin or Stalin, Trump, Trump does. I mean, he made all these promises he didn't deliver. He's taken, what now, at least 30 companies that we know of the United States has significant equity stakes in. Um, you know, whereas former President Biden used the CHIPS Act in order to bring the semiconductor industry here by doing incentives where if companies hit benchmarks, certain funds could be unlocked to incentivize them. Instead, what Donald Trump did is said, ah, this money for incentives, I'm going to use it like they do in communism. We're not going to give you the funds. We're going to take control over your company, you know, for that. And we're going to take equity stakes in your company and we will be the owner and I will have control over how the companies do certain things. And, you know, Trump's turned our entire, you know, economy into what you normally see in what are referred to disparagingly as third world nations or banana republics, where Trump apparently is on the phone on a nightly basis with, uh, Warsh, the, uh, chairman of the Federal Reserve, kind of planning and coordinating, which is not what's supposed to happen at all.

Donald Trump's manipulating the markets. He's literally selling an insider trading feature on his social media platform. He's personally doing $21,000— $21,000 trades to the tune of billions and billions of dollars in money that he's making. Then he's giving himself tax immunity where which fortunately was just challenged in a Virginia court. Talk about some of these court cases when we come back. Katie Fang, the Virginia case, David Hearn, other major cases, big legal updates to report from. Let's take our last quick break of the show. A reminder, preorder WTF America, the book I wrote with my brothers, WTF America, preorder now. The book comes out October. Preorders are helpful. So if you were thinking about, I'm just going to wait until it comes out, please do the preorder now. Our publisher says that's way more helpful for the sales and the momentum than waiting until October 20th. So preorder now. You can Google it, WTF America, if that's easier for you, or we have a link in the description or use the QR code. All right, let's take our last break.

Oh, and I'll wait. I'll, I'll make this plug too. There are fake books that come pop out apparently when you write books that are trying to dupe you. And so they're fake books that steal your title and they're all written by AI.

AI.

So make sure you get the one that's written by Brett Benn and Jordy Mycelis and not the AI slop garbage that they're trying to trick you with. Okay, we'll be right back after this break. I'm excited to get into these legal updates and shout out Katie Fang. A lot to report on the Epstein Files case when we get back. I'm always looking for simple ways to upgrade my daily routine, and recently I came across Loringco, a chewing gum that actually helps make your teeth stronger. Every time you use it. Loringo is better for you chewing gum that uses the same mineral your teeth are made of to support daily enamel health. It uses nano hydroxyapatite, the same mineral your enamel is actually made of, to strengthen your enamel and repair damage. Comes in a bunch of great flavors like mint, cinnamon, bubblegum, and berry. And they also make a really great fluoride-free toothpaste. Loringo sent me the gum and I am a big fan. The flavors taste great, the flavor lasts, and I like I like chewing a piece after coffee or after meals. It leaves my mouth feeling fresh, and it feels good knowing I'm doing something to help keep my teeth strong and healthy every time I chew it.

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Let's go. Shout out to our sponsors. Links in the description of the YouTube and the audio. Use the links, use the codes. There's an exit survey. Let them know we sent you. Benji, wait, am I— is the QR code up there for you guys?

No, no, opposite, opposite direction, folks.

So you messed— so you messed me up because on the graphics, just for the record, It's that way for me.

That's why, you know, they say the best audio podcasts are when you speak about visual things for a long time.

It entices people to be like, maybe I should check out YouTube.

That's what Jordy's like, look, Ben, before I call to you for you to give me all the legal breakdowns, I'm gonna just go and we're gonna talk about this QR code graphic.

You guys have to understand, that's why our audio listeners are specific. They like when I talk about where the QR codes on the screen are.

That's how I content, right?

Okay, just— I do want to mention some things I said at the outset, which is, uh, there have been major attacks in the Strait of Hormuz in the past 48 hours and in the Red Sea. There have been Saudi tankers hit in the Red Sea and right— kind of right outside the Red Sea area by the Houthis. The Houthis launched a major attack in northern Yemen as well, in an area that's still controlled by the Saudi-backed government. The Houthis control most of Yemen, western Yemen, the area by the Red Sea, a lot of the most kind of valuable territory in Yemen. But this northern area, there's a smaller stronghold controlled by the international recognized— by the government that's recognized elsewhere, not by the West in certain places in Saudi Arabia, which is really the Saudi-backed Yemen government. And the Houthis launched a major attack there. Now, the Houthis are part of the axis of resistance of Iran that also involves involves Hezbollah, the Houthis, these Iraqi militia groups, some Somali groups, and, and others. They realize the US is out of weapons. And if the US is out of weapons, that means Saudi's out of weapons, right?

And that means Jordan's out of weapons. That means the whole region's out of weapons. And that's why these nations, these Arab nations that thought that they were getting the Arab security umbrella the Arab Dome, the way Israel has the Iron Dome, they are left saying, what the hell? We did all these quid pro quo deals with you, Donald, in year one and right before then, because you promised you were going to protect us and you didn't protect us. That's been Iran's strategy. So some people like, well, why wasn't Iran attacking Israel? Because Iran actually had a strategy. Their strategy— why would we attack them? If we attack them, then they, they have a working Iron Dome. We're going to waste a lot of our munitions and our ballistics on them versus really putting the pressure on the United States. So while Trump had a strategy of wasting the interceptors, Iran was like, we're not going to waste the ballistics on Israel's Iron Dome. We want to expose the Arab dome doesn't work, because then if we can corral support there, then we can start putting pressure on Trump and Israel. But we don't even have to fire a shot at Israel.

That's their strategy. And if we just studied Iran strikes on Tel Aviv in 2024, which again, no one really covered— and by the way, that was under Biden. And there's a lot of learning we should all do about— man, people weren't covering that. That, we probably all thought it was propaganda when Iran hit hard in Tel Aviv. Ah, they didn't really do that. That's AI. Or maybe it wasn't AI back then the way it is today. But like, yeah, that didn't really happen, right? The same way now there's all these, all of the missiles were intercepted. No, Iran really hit hard in Israel in 2024 and showed their capabilities. And had that been studied versus written off or covered up, people could have seen what was going on. So Red Sea, lots of tankers hit by the Houthis. Strait of Hormuz, tankers hit. In fact, before we went live right by Keshem, we learned that there were— that the Iranians announced that they had hit. This is— let me just read you the post about what they said went down, that they hit some targets there as well. They said Iranian state media, the sound of two explosions heard in Keshem.

Was due to confronting hostile enemy targets near the entrance of the Strait of Hormuz. The achievements of this operation by our brave forces will be announced to the public in the coming hours. Now, you may go, well, Ben, it's Iran. Iran lies. Sure, they're going to do propaganda. I'm not naive and go, well, Tasnim Fars or Mehr says it, therefore let's just agree that everything they say is true. But I'll tell you, as between CENTCOM and Tasnim, you know, it's, it's The fact that you even have to go, who's telling me the truth here? Well, I guess I have to observe who controls the Strait of Hormuz. I have to look at this satellite footage to see what's going on, and then I have to make my own judgments about what's really happening here. And that's a sad place to be in where CENTCOM and Trump and the United States or Trump has caused CENTCOM to just lose all credibility. It's like, okay, which is like everything's not just a lie, but like a dumb lie that's easily uh, that's easily disprovable. So we've had a lot of that. There was a Kuwaiti base that was struck this past week and no one wanted to report on.

In Dubai, there appeared to be a Houthi strike, which in Dubai and UAE, they said, 'Ah, it was just a random explosion. That, that's not really, um, you know, that's not really what happened.' And so that's what's actually taking place right now there. So if you're Saudi Arabia, you're MBS, MBS, you're looking around and you're saying, WTF, what the hell is this? What do you think we gave all this money to? What do you think we gave them money to go? What the hell are you even doing here? And that's why Donald's like, well, let me try to dangle. You want civilian nuclear technology, right? Because you got to figure this out. So, you know, MBS is like, you know, you screwed us badly. We're in a lot of trouble. We need civilian nuclear. And if you don't think that MBS knows that if you can downblend, you can upblend, what do you think they want? What do you— what do you think the route— do you think that the promise was really civilian nuclear, or do you think it was once you have the enrichment, you can just enrich it even more and get weapons grade?

Because don't you think if you're Saudi Arabia, you're now thinking The only thing that's going to protect us now is a nuclear weapon because Iran's going to get a nuclear weapon now. Trump can't stop us there, so we need one. We need a nuke. What do you think is going on in the United Arab Emirates right now? Donald, you didn't help us. So what do you want? What do you want, UAE? Well, UAE, it's like a— it's like Oprah. It's like the Oprah. You get nukes, you get semiconductors, you get this. This. What does UAE get? They got our classified Blackwell semiconductors, the most highly classified. And we gave China our second most highly classified, not the Blackwell but the tier right under it. So UAE got the top, top of the line. China got the one right below it. You don't think UAE is going to go to China and give them top of the line too? Why do you think China didn't even want to place many orders on the number 2? Because they know how to do it themselves now. Of course they know how to do it themselves. But this is also because our security umbrella doesn't work.

So Donald Trump and the Ponzi schemes now, giving them this and giving them that, that's what's going on in the region. It is, it is Oprah on Christmas. You get this, you get that, you get this. I mean, it's probably much worse than that, but that's what's actually going on at an international level. And we need to recognize that that's what's taking place. And meanwhile, Donald Trump is out there, you know, with the $1.5 trillion military budget, like $300— $1.5 trillion, $300 billion. He wants to build frickin' Trump, Trump-class battleships because he liked the way battleships looked in World War I. He liked to think about the idiotic— he likes battleships and he doesn't like stealth. So he said, build me Trump nuclear battleships.

Really?

In the age of drones and unmanned submersives, you idiot. You want Trump battleships? And you watch these idiotic members of Congress say, oh, good Donald, that's what you want. We'll give it to you, Donald. It is pathetic. WTF. This, you know, these deeper concepts we talk about in the book, by the way. And I'm watching this. I'm like, what are you doing, Trump? It takes two drones, one drone, one unmanned submersive. Say goodbye to your $20 billion Trump battleship. And meanwhile, behind the scenes, we're like firing all of these nuclear sub commanders. Did you see that as well? I did a whole report on it. You know, you had Ohio-class nuclear sub commander was just fired. We had the destroyer commander of the USS Mason get fired. You had the Secretary of Navy get fired. You have all of our top generals getting fired. While Hegseth runs out of munitions. He's the worst. He couldn't run a nonprofit for veterans. You expect him to run frickin' the United States military? The guy was forced out for misconduct running nonprofits for mismanagement. But let's end with hope. Let's end with hope. David Hearn case officially dismissed.

Yes, we know Jeanine Pirro filed the notice to dismiss, fabricated evidence against David Hearn. Judge officially dismissed it. That's good news. Senator Murkowski of Alaska was asked tough questions by the Midas Touch DC bureau. Thanks to you, we built that DC bureau. Pablo Manriquez asked her some questions, got her on the record. So this is why independent news— this wouldn't have existed without your help, by the way, in building this network. Work and doing what they're doing in D.C. And by the way, they also inspired the Midas people in D.C. All those people in D.C. now doing that shtick, doing the Midas thing, whether it's TMZ D.C. asking, having a unique perspective, you know, whether it's all these other entities, they saw what we were doing back, you know, earlier in the year and they're like, holy shit, we can do this. That's great. We want to inspire others.

Let's—

I don't—

let's, let's hold politicians accountable. They work for us. They work for us, damn it. Let me play for you the audio of when Manriquez spoke to Murkowski in the halls of Capitol Hill. And what are you hearing from your constituents about your vote on Blanchard?

We hear a lot.

Is it mostly that they want you to vote for or against?

Most of the, most of the constituent may on email or calls that we're receiving are opposed to the nomination, much of which has to do with Epstein, just based on, based on my weekly readouts.

And why would you consider supporting?

I'm now supposed to go to— I haven't been commenting on my position on him in terms of what's going to go on with the vote.

Senator, do you feel any closer to any type of decision?

Yes.

What's moved you closer?

You know what? I think you are all taking advantage of the fact that I dared to answer a few open-ended questions there about Epstein. And, and you're now getting closer to just what are you going to do? I'm going to have an opportunity to, to issue a statement. And rather than do it in little dribs and drabs here and there, I, I— you all will see it.

Also, the way she frames herself as the victim in the narrative because she was answering the question and she's like, you're taking advantage. No one's taking you— you're a United States senator.

We're asking you questions. But I gotta say, shout out to Pablo. That's a big scoop right there. Um, and, uh, and so we'll see what happens. But, you know, we've seen the charade before, right? We've seen— and, you know, it's all coordinated behind the scenes at the end of the day. And with this Blanchard vote, the math is, because McConnell's out— McConnell was supposedly discharged from, uh, his his— wherever he was, his rehab center, whatever, whatever's going on there. Um, and he's not going back to work for a long time. And so they're down McConnell. Republicans can afford to lose 2 votes, and Susan Collins has already said that she is not voting for Blanche. And so that means you would need, uh, theoretically Murkowski and one other to block Blanche. Uh, that would traditionally— you know, people lean on someone like Murkowski, who Pablo spoke with, and then there's Bill Cassidy. Um, and, uh, they always tend to find a way to have the— just the right amount of votes, just slips right through. And so Murkowski was saying most of her constituents oppose Blanche, perhaps she votes no, but then there's the likely chance that Cassidy votes yes and he gets through.

Remember, Cassidy was the guy who was responsible for voting yes on RFK Jr. Cassidy himself, a medical doctor, um, and then of course everyone warned him exactly what was going to when he made that vote. He ignored it, uh, he feigned concern, and then he, then he acted all surprised after RFK started dismantling all these agencies and all these disease outbreaks. Wait a second, how could this happen? Because of you. Because of you. Because you have power and you failed to use it. There was another moment, uh, that interview— we actually have the full clip of that interview on MidasNews.com. It goes on for like 6 minutes. That was the end of it. Um, but Murkowski also says that she received a note while she was on a plane. She's from Alaska. Uh, Merkowski's in Alaska, and, and a, a woman came over to her and left a note, uh, to Merkowski on the plane that said, I am from Alaska and I'm an Epstein survivor. We hope that we can talk with you. And so Merkowski was speaking about these personal kind of firsthand interactions that she's had with Epstein survivors, including from her own state.

So we'll see, uh, if that has any effect on her vote. To me, if, if the majority of your constituents are calling you and writing notes telling you not to vote for a person listen, you work for your constituents. You don't work for Donald Trump, so you should listen to your constituents. That's my— maybe my naive opinion here.

I just feel like we've been there with Murkowski before, and if that's where we're, you know, putting our— put our eggs in that basket, I think we know how this is going to end. They always seem to sort of find a way, if you will.

Yeah, and the reality is Blanche could be acting AG for Trump's whole term if he's not—

if he's not approved.

So, you know, You know, on that front, it was good to see that in the federal court in Virginia, you have the amended complaint being filed regarding Trump's tax immunity, that these other Republican senators were okay. I mean, you're just okay with giving the guy tax immunity that he can't be investigated for tax crimes? I mean, why, why, why, why should anybody be given immunity that you can't be investigated for tax crimes?

Crimes.

And what does that have anything to do with anything? If he filed the frivolous $10 billion lawsuit, so then he gets tax immunity?

That's the cra—

and his sons get it too? That's the craziest thing ever. So in the same case where a preliminary injunction has already been granted blocking the anti-weaponization fund, which again the Trump regime refused to put it in writing in that case, it was one of the big red flags that the fund doesn't exist.

Right?

Instead, they did that whatever order. Now the same plaintiff said, well, we saw what a federal judge did in Florida, said that the settlement was executed via collusion and fraud and impropriety. So if the settlement agreement's void, you can't have an addendum to the settlement agreement. So they want the preliminary injunction now to also include include blocking Donald Trump and his family's tax immunity. And so that's now been added to that lawsuit. And they said, well, now it's clear for the first time that that's actually what Trump wants, tax immunity. So we want to include that in our lawsuit. So we'll have to wait to see what the federal judge does there. But the federal judge has already ruled against, um, Trump and the DOJ on the Anti-Weaponization Fund. So let's pay attention there. Let's take a look at what's happening in Katie Fang's lawsuit. Just to remind you, she sued under the Epstein Transparency Act. It was the first of its kind lawsuit alleging, uh, that she as a reporter was deprived access to files critical to her reporting, um, under the Epstein Transparency Act by the DOJ's cover-up. She then filed a preliminary injunction to release a certain group of documents.

There were 3 categories. One, the redaction privilege log. Two, the notes of the FBI in connection with specific allegations by an underage girl regarding Donald Trump. Trump denies those allegations. There was an FBI 302 report, but the notes have been hidden. And so produce the notes. And then the other category of damages, or the other category of documents that were being sought were— what was the other category, Brett? I'm trying to think of category 1. I'm just drawing a blank on it right now. I can't read that. Um, I'll get to it in a moment when I, when I take a look at what that other category was. Um, but then there was the other category of damages as well. So 3 categories of damages that were being sought there. And then she sought the preliminary injunction. She was granted the preliminary injunction. And then Todd Blanch did not turn over the documents. Let me pull up Category 1. Um, oh, the redactions. Uh, the read— Todd Blanch redacted the names of co-conspirators but claimed that they were victims. And he said, well, the lawyers contacted me and said they were victims, so therefore I treated them as victims.

And Katie was like, what makes you believe they're victims? They seem to be clearly co-conspirators. So it seems what was happening— it's really sick— it seems that one of the ways that the co-conspirators tried to keep their names secret was just by having like these wealthy men, these powerful men, these Epstein-class men would have their lawyers call up Blanche and say that they're the victims. So while the victim information was leaked, the co-conspirators had their names redacted because their powerful lawyers called the DOJ under Trump to say they were the real victims. Real sick stuff. And that's why Katie Fang focused on these categories. And so the judge ordered Blanche, turn over these 3 categories. I want to review them in camera, meaning I'll review them confidentially. Katie Fang won't be in the room. The public won't see it.

Yet.

I'm going to look at it, just the judge, so I can see, are these actually victims or are they co-conspirators? Prove to me they are victims if you're claiming them as victims. Todd Blanch turned over nothing. Turn over the notes. Why aren't you turning over the notes? Uh, we're withholding them on the basis of they're substantially similar to the 302 report, says Blanch, to which the judge says, That's not an exception. There's no such thing as substantially similar. And the judge had held off on issuing any order about the privilege or redaction log. That's all of the documents that have been withheld. But then now that you've lied to me and you have not given me justification for redactions and you have not given me information regarding the other category of damages, I want to know where the privilege log is, and I want, I want you to release the privilege log and show me every one of these documents that you've withheld. Um, and I want to know, and I want to know that because you're still withholding. Are you making these objections as well, that the FBI 302 notes don't count?

I—

if you've withheld 5 million documents, I want every one of those documents logged. So the judge, Judge Sullivan, has ordered the FBI— has ordered Todd Blanch and the DOJ to show up August 13th and give answers. So I want to give a hat tip to Katie Fang because this is really a big ruling. The judge has now drilled down into these categories, right? Fake redactions, which is a big issue, withholding notes, privilege log. And now the judge is saying, show up, explain to me Why? And that now can open up everything. And it was a brilliant strategy by Katie Fang and her lawyers. It's an honor to be working with Katie Fang. We'll, of course, be covering that hearing on August 13th. Katie Fang will be in the courtroom. And Katie Fang's also been working with another Midas host who has a show on Midas, Allison Gill, who's been doing FOIA requests also. And Allison Gill discovered that there was a training video video to FBI agents how to flag and cover up Trump-related documents. So she's pursuing that. So you've got Allison, you've got Katie, you've got Scott McFarland from the courthouse, you've got Michael Popock working with the top legal groups on Legal AF, and we're bringing them all together to share knowledge and to get out all the knowledge to the public.

That's how we've always wanted this to operate. What we talk about though, the thesis in WTF America, America. It's how you build something like this that now all of a sudden works together, each one of these independent networks working as a unified force pushing the message forward. Brett and Jordy, that's why everyone pre-order WTF America now.

Pre-order WTF America, QR code on the screen and link in the description. And let us know in the comments if you pre-ordered it. And I also want to give a shout out, I've been following Katie's updates on the case uh, which is always great, like hearing it straight from her on her podcast Sidebar with Katie Fang. That's like, you know, wherever you go to podcasts, it's really good. Like, Kate, her analysis is just so good, and she speaks, you know, from firsthand experience obviously on the, this Epstein case, that and all the kind of trials and tribulations of it, and also all the other various, uh, cases that are, uh, out there. So, you know, she's given her incredible analysis, and, uh, you know, and she does not hold back. I, I truly think Katie Fang just fearless and incredible.

Absolutely.

I mean, that was like living through history as it's happening, as Katie is doing the fight, is fighting the good fight. She's absolutely crushing it. Again, that's Sidebar with Katie Fang, wherever you get your audio podcasts. It is phenomenal to listen to, and she just explains it in such a way that makes it, you know, for us to understand is incredible. Benji, Brett, this has been an incredible episode.

Thank you everybody for watching. We're grateful for you. Pre-order, put in the comments comments, confirm that you pre-ordered, uh, hit subscribe. And again, just thank you from the bottom of my heart. This is all possible because of you, the Midas Mighty community. We dedicate the book to you. We talk about you throughout the book. Like, the big through line in the book is the Midas Mighty. So it's truly a book by you, for you, with you in mind. Uh, pre-order it now. We appreciate you. And thanks for watching this episode. We covered a lot of topics.

Shout out to the Midas Mighty.

The Midas Mighty standing strong against the fascists.

We sing our song. We will get it right.

Breaking news right now, my brothers and I wrote a book. It's called WTF America, and well, doesn't that just say it all? It comes out officially this October, but you can preorder your copy today. Just scan the QR code or click the link in the description below.