Speaker 1: Welcome back to Political beat Down with Ben Macellas and
Michael Cohen. We have a lot to discuss with you today.
The first thing we got to discuss is our co
host Michael Cohen making a lot of news. On Wednesday,
February eighth, our co host Michael Cohen met with the
Manhattan District Attorney's Office for the fifteenth time in connection
with their criminal investigation into Donald Trump. A criminal grand
jury is currently impaneled in Manhattan as well. Let's see
what Michael Cohen will be able to tell us. If anything,
I am going to try my darnedest to get some
information out of him. President Biden gave what I thought
was one of the most incredible State of the Unions
in the history of our country, one of the best speeches, frankly,
I've ever heard. And I want to contrast that and
get your take, Cohen, between Biden's speech and the utter
buffoonery of the MAGA Republicans there shouting.
Speaker 2: Being kind when you call them buffoons, an absolute jokes,
disrespectful as far as as far as everybody's analysis, it
is beyond disrespectful. You know this was only done once before.
But we'll get into it. You know, let me let
you finish your little monologue.
Speaker 1: He speaking of the complete and utter buffoonery that is MAGA. Yesterday,
the Magaled House Oversight Committee held a hearing with former
Twitter executives, which at the end of the day, all
it proved was that it was Donald Trump who consistently
used the government to try to get Twitter to take
down posts, including posts that hurt his feelings, including that
Chrissy Teagan post. We will discuss these committee hearings are
really exposing the goop. And when we talk about these
committee hearings, there's one taking place right now. It's the
so called MAGA Republican Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the
Justice Department. And I'm sure it's going to suffer the
same fate as all these other ill fated committee hearings
that these Magga Republicans are doing. It's just going to
show that it's Donald Trump and Bill Barr and others
who weaponized the Department of Justice and the FBI and
used it to attack people like our co host Michael Cohen.
And finally, I want to touch on Special Counsel Jack
Smith and how Smith's team of lawyers and a group
of FBI agents recently questioned the former acting Homeland Security
Secretary Chad Wolfe, which is a big development in the
investigation there. Michael Cohen, Welcome to the Political beat Down again.
I love co hosting this with you, and I know
you've been thinking about you know, the Political Beatdown's been
making waves. It was featured and a lot of news networks.
The community of Political Beatdown watchers has grown up, and
I know you've been thinking about the community aspect.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So one of the things that I constantly refer
to all of you as, which is our Political Beatdown family,
and you are, but I don't think it adequately describes
who we are as a group and what we're trying
to accomplish. And so on my Twitter account, I went
ahead and I put out helped me to find the
name because some of you are really much brighter than
I am, especially much more creative than I am at
doing this. And I offered a signed copy of my
book Revenge to the person who I I like their ideas.
And so there's a guy by the name of Jeff
and he's at beast Quake and Jeff came up with
the name, and I hope you all like it. It's going
to be called the Beatdown Brigade. I love the name.
I think that's exactly what we are. We are a brigade.
We are a group of people working together to accomplish something.
We are trying to accomplish the preservation of democracy, holding
those accountable accountable, ensuring that the Department of Justice remains
unscathed despite the fact of everything that's going on. And yes,
we will talk about the Weaponization Subcommittee that's currently right
now meeting in Washington, d C. There's so much to
talk about. I hope everybody likes it. I also think
it's great because we can come up with some interesting
logos for the Beatdown Brigade. But that's who we are.
We are not just a family, but we're a brigade
where they are working together to accomplish something. So I
thought the name was absolutely perfect. Again, I hope everybody
enjoys it.
Speaker 1: And when we're talking about what the Beatdown Brigade does,
it's beating down the lies, right, it's beating down the disinformation,
the fascism. It's funny. There was one person who commented,
they said, Cohen and Macellus are so ahead of the news.
That's why the last stream that we did glitched for
a moment and we had to start a newstream. They're
so ahead of the news that the news had to
catch up with them. And I think one of the
best examples of that is the breaking news that we
reported here first on our Tuesday edition of The Political Beatdown,
where you announced here exclusively that you would be speaking
with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office for the fifteenth time
in connection with their criminal investigation. Now, I know there
is very little that you are allowed to discuss, because
that's just the reality of ongoing criminal investigations. But is
there any additional flavor that you can give us now
that that meeting took place, Whether it's your confidence about
the people in the room, the amount of people in
the room, perhaps the differences in terms and maybe without
getting into specifics, tone and feeling from the last time
you spoke the fourteenth time, do you think that there's
going to be more of these? What if anything can
you share with us?
Speaker 2: Michael Cohen, so I can share that I am going
to be returning again for the sixteenth time next week,
I don't want to give out any of the specifics
in terms of the day and the time. But at
this point in time, I am expected to come back.
You know, there's a lot of comments flying around media
right now about Alvin Bragg, and a lot of it
has to do with Mare Pomerant's new book that's coming
out People Versus Donald Trump. And while I agree with
Mark Pomerantz, I stated so as I was entering the
building at eighty eighty Center Street. One of the things,
or sixty Center Street, one of the things that I
had said is I do believe that Donald Trump committed
a crime. And I believe that Mark Pomerance was correct
over a year ago, around the time of his and
carried done their resignation from the District Attorney's office, that
there could have been an indictment and a prosecution of
Donald Trump. Now, one of the things I also agree
with Mark Pomerantz's there is no case that is a
slam dunk. And while some seem more obvious than others,
no case is a one hundred percent slam dunk. And
so the notion that a prosecutor will only take on
case is especially one of high profile individuals in this case,
the former attorney, I'm sorry, the former president to the
United States with a witness who is the former personal
attorney to that individual. I could understand their trepidation. I
could understand them wanting to take it slow. While I
still think that that case could have been brought. They're
not supposed to be looking at whether or not a
conviction is eminent or guaranteed, because once again, no case
is one hundred percent, and they could have brought it,
and I believe personally that a conviction would have been attained. Now,
Alvin Bragg, to be fair to him, had just come
into the game and it was seven weeks in when
he decided that they were going to put the brakes
on this thing and reevaluate the work product that was
done and look more deeply at the case. Fine, you
know everybody's using these transportations in air transportation analogies that
they put the brakes on on the plane, it wasn't
ready for take off, et cetera, et cetera. So I'm
going to stay in that genre and say to you
that the plane is on the tarmac and at the
same time that that plane is ready for departure. I
will also turn around and say that like planes that
are delayed or even ones that are canceled. Ultimately you
get back onto another plane and you ultimately arrive at
a destination. And I believe that the destination is coming.
And I do believe that Alvin Bragg and his team
they are extremely extremely prepared. They are incredibly knowledgeable, and
they are actively reviewing all of the information and there's
a lot of information here for them to review in
order to make their assessment. But I do believe personally
that we will arrive at the destination. If you understand
the metaphor.
Speaker 1: One may say they're ready to go that you feel
ready to go?
Speaker 2: Can I get you peanuts, popcorns, soda pop?
Speaker 1: And you are And you've said this before, but to
the new beat Down Brigaders watching this, you felt very
confident though in Pomerants and Done in how they were
pursuing it. That's why you were to say apoplectic when
they left would be an understatement. But you now, with
this new team that you've met with, you have the
same level of confidence today that you did with the
Pomerants and Done team. Is that accurate?
Speaker 2: Semi? So, remember, prior to meeting with Bragg's team, I
had met thirteen times with the previous team three times
while I was at Otisville, ten times after I was released,
and now two times with this new team. Let me
say that I was exceptionally comfortable and confident in Mark
Pomerants and Carrie Dunn. Their professionalism was extraordinary, and so
is the rest of their team. In the two visits
that I've had now with the Alvin Bragg run team,
let me also say that I feel and I am
getting to the same place. But I feel very confident.
They are exceptionally exceptionally talented prosecutors. They are incredibly adept
at litigation and certainly the art of trial, and more importantly,
they are extremely knowledgeable about all of the facts circumstances
surrounding the issues they've also which impressed me a lot.
They are also up to speed, I should say, almost
almost up to speed with the vast amount of information
that they took over from the previous investigation. But I
do feel extremely comfortable with them, and I am almost
at the same point of comfort that I was with
Mark Pomerance and carried done two exceptional exceptional lawyers to
exceptional prosecutors and two exceptional individuals.
Speaker 1: I think that they have a grasp of knowledge on
the vast amount of information is a very important point there,
I think for those just tuning in, I thought you
broke some very important news as well. And not only
were you there for the fifteenth appearance, you will be
going back for a sixteenth appearance. And certainly I'm not
putting words in your mouth. I'm just giving my own
personal observations as a lawyer who has dealt with these
things before. Usually when the meetings start getting quicker and
quicker and closer and closer, that's usually a sign that
things are starting to move in a certain direction. Although
you could extrapolate a lot of different things from data.
But if I was hosting my legal show without you Cohen,
that's the analysis that I would be giving there, and
I probably will give on Legal af But you.
Speaker 2: Know, before we go, before we move on, you know,
one of the comments that constantly pops up, not just
here from our beatdown brigade, but from many people is
I'm tired of waiting, all right. Well, while I understand
your you know, anxiousness in terms of getting an indictment
and a prosecution and hopefully a conviction, especially if you're
the prosecutors, I understand how you feel, and trust me,
nobody understands that better than I. But very much like
when your plane is delayed or canceled, do you start
to walk? Do you say, fuck it, I'm not going
to where I intended to go. The answer to that
is no. You know what you do. You sit your
ass down in the chair and you wait. Sometimes you
know what else you have to do. You sleep in
the airport, or you go home and you come back
the next day. That's what's been happening. But ultimately, if
your decision is you want to end up at the
final destination, well you come back and then you sit
and you wait again, and then you board the aircraft
and you wait for the pilot you know, to taxi
on to the runway, and then you take off an
X number of hours later, you end up at your destination.
We have to use the same metaphor when we're talking
about this specific case. Me personally, While I wish that
they would have done this a year ago, like you,
I wish that they would have indicted pursuing to Mark
Pomerance and carry Dunn's belief, they didn't, And so I
could do one of two things. I could continue to
criticize the current brag office, or I can continue to
cooperate with them in hopes that they reach the destination
that I believe is valid and justified. And I want
to make it crystal clear to people, especially to the
trolls that are out there. Let me be very clear.
I do not want to see Donald Trump indicted, prosecuted, convicted, incarcerated,
simply because I despise virtually everything that comes out of
his mouth, that I fund mentally disagree with him on
almost everything that he does and says. Okay, I want
to see him indicted, prosecuted, convicted, and possibly incarcerated or
placed on home confinement because he committed a crime. This
is not a retribution thing. This is holding him accountable.
This is ensuring that our democracy continues. It's making sure
that whether you're rich or you're poor, justice is equal
to each and every one of us, and that he
too must be held accountable for his dirty deeds. Because
if we're going to continue the adage that no one
is above the law, well, this is what needs to
be done. So I'm willing to sit back and wait
as I have, and I hope that you'll show the
same patience and reserve that I am.
Speaker 1: Well, that gives me comfort, and I think it should
give the Beatdown Brigade, the Midas Mighty, the legal a
efforts We're gonna have all these have all these names
and all this great all these great names. But I
think it gives them a good deal of comfort as
well to hear that from you, Because if anyone should
be pissed off using your metaphor that the plane didn't
take off, it should be you, because not only in
the past is the plane not taken off for you
in the right direction, but you know, you've been taken
in a plane to I could take this really far,
you know, to to basically to Siberia, you know, I mean, you.
Speaker 2: Know then I've been taken to hell that I know
what hell looks like. I've been there. You know, people
don't realize what fifty one days of solitary confinement can
do to you. People don't realize what happens when you're
not with your family simply because of another man's dirty deeds.
And you know, all of this is ultimately coming out,
whether it's the disgraceful behavior, the uneff illegal behavior of
Jeffrey Berman, who is the former head of the Southern
District of New York, the Southern District of New York
prosecutorial team, most of whom are not even there anymore.
They're all now at these you know, massive white shoe
you know law firms like you know, making seven figures
all in their bio. The very first paragraph successfully prosecuted
biggest twenty first century case of US versus Cohen. Let
me be very clear to my beatdown brigade, I was
not prosecuted. I was not convicted. I pled to a
one page information that was stuck into my face like
a hostage video in forty eight hours. If you don't
plead guilty with filing an eighty page indictment, that's going
to include your wife and I dare anybody out there
to say that you would not do the same to
protect your loved ones. So it would have been much
easier for me to keep my mouth shut. Chances are
the orange crusted mandarin Mussolini would have giving me a pardon,
but I don't want it. I never wanted it from him,
and I still wouldn't take it from him. I will
continue to ensure that our democracy continues forever and ever
and ever and that we will not together as the Brigade,
we will not allow people like Donald Trump and Donald
Trump two point zero to hijack our democracy and to
take advantage and to try to impede upon our constitutional rights.
I will do everything in my power to ensure that
he is held to the same standard of the law
to justice that you and I are.
Speaker 1: That's why people, including myself, just so admire your courage,
because you've been to helen back, to support our democracy,
to stand up for people, to talk about what you
did in the past, but to speak the truth to
power to make sure that our democracy survives. And it's
something that you know sometimes when you and I talk,
you know, I am in awe of what you've what
you've been able to do against all odds, And I
think it's something that lots of people recognize, a lot
of a lot more people need to recognize. And the
Manhattan District Attorney's prosecution, what the New York Attorney General
is doing, what Letitia James is doing, what Fawnie willis
is evening like like your backbone, your ability to stand
up to trump Ism and to Maga extremism is really
an inspiration and a roadmap not just for the prosecutions
in New York, but for district attorneys across the country
to follow. And I think it's a roadmap for democracy.
And speaking about roadmaps for.
Speaker 2: You know, let me just say, if I can just
say one more thing, Ben, you know, I want to
be clear, though I actually did commit a crime. I
committed campaign finance violation. Now I did so at the
direction of and for the bench of Donald J. Trump.
I want people to understand I knew that they were
coming after me at a bare minimum of just the
campaign finance violation, but the additional charges that were brought
against me. If you read Revenge, you'll understand there's no
tax evasion. Though I had to plead guilty to it,
I could not under any circumstances that I see in
the comments. So many of our brigaders would have done
the same as I. You protect your loved ones. That's
my job on this planet. Everything else is secondary to
my wife, my daughter, and my son. And as you
may recall, I had said it to George Stephanopoulos, my
first loyalty belongs to my wife, my daughter, my son,
and my country. And I will not allow history to
remember me as the villain of Donald Trump's story. And
that's why I fight every single day too. You know,
not easy fighting truth to power, especially, I mean it's
not easy fighting Donald Trump when he was just Donald Trump.
Now try to figure fighting Donald Trump when he's the
President of the United States with a willing and complicit,
bloviated piece of shit like Bill Barr, who has not
yet been you know, called in, who has not been
held accountable.
Speaker 1: Cohen froze for one second, but I think it was
because the stream of him talking about the bloviating buffoon
idiot that is Bill Barr that would probably make my
stream crash as well. When Cohen returns, though, what I
really want to talk to him about.
Speaker 2: Wow, all right, you know, I think what's happening is
we had a couple of these maga s hats who
are out there and they're interfering somehow with the system.
You know, don't don't underestimate that.
Speaker 1: No, we got. I was able to fill in the
words when you were describing Bill Barr, and I think
I nailed it to a t. But I want to
move on though and talk about the state of view.
And you and I were talking about it after we
were talking about it earlier in the morning, and Biden's
State of the Union I thought was great speech. I
thought he hit on some real critical uh points, I
mean focus, focused on domestic policy, focused on foreign policy,
uh focusing on our democracy in general, you know, and
then he hit these important points too though, just that.
I don't know about you, Cohen, but I got all
these calls from people who aren't even political or text
messages and saying like, Ben, how is anybody against that?
Or you know, I really wasn't paying attention, you know,
to the news all that much. But everything he's saying
says so much sense. And I'm like, yeah, you should
be watching the Midas Touch network. You should be listening
to Maya Kolpa. You should be listening to Political Beatdown.
You should be you should be listening and making sure
you're they are listening.
Speaker 2: They are listening to Political Beatdown right now. My brigaders,
we are number fourteen on all Apple News podcasts. It
is an incredible, incredible number. I mean, don't forget this
is a network that's private and a lot of it
is funded by many of you. Are we are up
there head to head against the major networks, against the
major newspapers against major corporations, and we are number fourteen
out of God knows there you go out of God
knows what number this is. This is the real deal.
We're number one twenty four. I think in all categories.
How many tens of millions of podcasts are there out there?
And the reason that we are doing so well is
thanks to you and people's under your decision that you
want to hear it raw, unfiltered. You want to know
the truth, not these nine, ten, twelve minutes soundbites that
you're getting, not the misinformation, disinformation, malinformation that's put out
there by so many networks so that they can base
tried to brainwash you to one side. I mean, I
don't know, we can tell. And let's just use that
as the lead in for the State of the Union.
If you watch MSNBC and CNN, and then on a
separate television you watch, for example, Fox, you would think
that you're talking about two different states of the Union addresses.
It is absolutely remarkable that there is no semblance between
the two. Nobody turns around and says, hey, Joe Biden
is right. He added more jobs to this economy in
two years than most presidents doing four specifically Donald Trump
and his administration. In fact, Donald Trump added twenty five
percent of hour of our deficit in four years, more
than any president. In fact, it's more than most presidents
in over two hundred years combined. So at the end
of the day, if you watch Fox, you're not going
to hear anybody talk about how great Joe Biden has
done in terms of job creation, in terms of reducing
gas prices, in terms of his desire to hold the
uber rich. And I'm not talking guys with the millions.
I'm talking guys with the bees, with the billions, where
they pay absolutely no tax at all. The corporation's pay
no tax. Well, he has come up with a plan
that will tax them. It's a minimum corporate tax. I
think it's like fifteen percent. That will help to balance
the budget. We will also help to clear our deficit.
If not, what are we doing. We're leaving our children,
grandchildren and god willing great grandchildren and so on with
a deficit that they cannot sustain, and that will be
the ultimate destruction of this country. When we need to
go to foreign countries like China, who holds more debt
than anybody else of our paper, and then you have
Republicans attempting to hijack the debt ceiling. We are all backwards.
We are upset down, inside out and backwards. And that's
why we really need strong leadership in Washington, which is
why is our brigaders come twenty twenty four, rest assured
we together will make sure that only the right people
end up winning.
Speaker 1: I mean there were so many moments from this where
there would be obvious applause lines for every American right.
I mean there was one moment where McCarthy and the
Magari Republicans refused to applaud for the wealthy and big
corporations paying their fair share of taxes. I mean, that's
all Biden said. Biden's like, look, I'm a capitalist. I
think that people should make money. It can make a
lot of money. I just think that the billionaire should
pay the same taxes as the firefighter. All the Democrats clapped,
and McCarthy just sat there and did nothing. And you
almost watch McCarthy while he's sitting there, and you see
how uncomfortable he looks because he stands for nothing and
he falls for everything because there is no backbone here.
Just play this clip right.
Speaker 2: Here, I can tell you plan. I'm going to show.
Speaker 3: He's going to cut the depths of by another two
trillion dollars, and I won't cut a single bit of
Medicare or self security. In fact, we're going to extend
the Medicacare Trust Fund at least two decades. Because that's
going to be the next argument, how do we make
keep it solvent? Right, Well, we'll not raise tax anyone
making under four under gram, but we'll pay for it
the way we talked about, by making sure that the
wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share. Look, look,
look here's the deal.
Speaker 1: You don't clap when you say that you got to
have big corporations pay their fair share. That seems to
be a universal thing. And that theme continued, you know throughout.
I mean when Biden talked about historic job creation, jobs, jobs, jobs,
basically the same thing. McCarthy salty. Do we have this
clip right here of Kevin McCarthy refusing to applaud after
Biden was was, you know, talking about historic job creation.
We'll pull that up in a moment. And then what
we got to also talk about Cohen is Santos, who
was right there the whole time and the interactions though
that were taking place between Romney and Santos. And you
know when Romney saw Santos there, he was like, get out,
what are you doing there? And it just to me.
Let's pull up this other clip though, of Biden talking
about jobs, job, jobs, play the clip salty.
Speaker 3: The story of America is the story of progress and resilience,
of always moving forward, of never ever giving up. It's
a story unique among all nations. Look how uncomfortable that
has emerged from every christ we've ever entered, stronger than
we got into it. Look, folks, that's what we're doing again.
Two years ago, the economy is reeling. I stand here
tonight after we've created, with a help of many people
in this room, twelve million new jobs, more jobs created
in two years than any presents created in four years
because of you, all present American people.
Speaker 1: Two years ago, in two years ago.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know about you, Bagel Ben,
but he to me looks like he's got gifts and
he's really trying to drop an SPD because that face
looks like he's in pain, and he's in pain over
what he's in pain, because America is trying to you know,
be the best that we can be. That he's creating
jobs that he wants to ensure that middle America and
lower middle class individuals aren't you know, paying for the
uber uber rich so that we can help to one
day get rid of the deficit that is strangling our country.
And by the way, one of our commenters, our brigaders,
is absolutely right, I did make a mistake. China is
not our biggest holder of debt any longer. It's actually
now Japan, So I stand corrected. You are right about
that at one point oh eight trillion dollars, slightly more,
you know, than China. But nevertheless, China is a massive,
massive holder of paper in the United States, and we
have real problems with China, you know, and it's it
is a real problem. So the fact that McCarthy could
not get up and could not applaud the fact that
Joe Biden had made this accomplishment not a democratic accomplishment,
not a Joe Biden accomplishment. Listen to the words that
Joe Biden said. He's an inclusionary individual. He said, thanks
to all of us, thanks to the American people, thanks
to the bipartisan cooperation many of you that are sitting
here today. That's a leader, not a guy that wants
to turn and said, well, if you didn't vote for me,
you know, fuck you, And I'm going to ensure that
I'm going to destroy you and everything else. And I'm
only going to cater to the class that wants to
back my campaign. That's not a leader. That's a grifter.
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree more with you. And how speaking about grifters,
You've got Santos on the floor of the House chamber
as you know, as all the senators are walking in,
like Santos positioned himself with this orange tie to make
his presence known. And there was the moment when Romney
was walking past them, and Romney's like, well, what you
should be ashamed of yourself. You should be embarrassed. Get
over there. We got this clip. I want to show
it to you. Let's let's pull it up. Sealfie Yah
those I'm listening. You have Romney approaching Pantos right now,
basically yelling and say what are you doing in Santos?
There's something back to Romney. Yeah, and Cohen, before getting
your reaction, I want to show you though, what Romney
said after uh the state of the Union to the press,
let's play this clip.
Speaker 4: You just think you don't belong there with Why why
I didn't expect that he'd be standing there trying to
shake hands with every senator in the president United States.
That's given, given the fact that he's under ethics investigations,
should be sitting in the back of round and saying
quiet instead of uh, parading in front of the president.
And uh and and people coming into the room to be.
Speaker 2: Able to respond to you, he says.
Speaker 4: He you know that he embellished his record. Look, embellishing
is saying you've got an A when he had an
A minus. Lying is saying you you graduated from a
college you didn't even attend. And and he shouldn't be
in Congress and uh, they're going to go through the
process and hopefully get him out. And uh, but he
shouldn't be there. And if he had any shame at all,
he wouldn't be there.
Speaker 1: Why did you make a point to say that though?
Speaker 2: And he went, I mean it was kind of out
of your way to he.
Speaker 4: Was standing right there in the aisle shaking hands with everybody.
Speaker 2: Did he respond to you, Uh, he may have. I
didn't hear anything that is not.
Speaker 1: Yes, Colin, what do you think about that?
Speaker 2: First of all, Mitt Romney happens to be a good man.
You know, I've known Mitt Romney for many years. He
really is a very decent man.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: He stands up for what right now. I don't agree
with everything that you know he agrees, but he happens
to be genuinely a decent man. He despises the likes
of a George Santos and I loved his analogy. You know,
a mistake right, embellishment is an A to an A
minus instead of an A. This guy got an F
and he's claiming he got an A plus. He's a
valedictorian of his class. He went to a college that
he never went to. He played volleyball, you know, against
other schools that aren't even in the same league. I mean,
it's truly amazing. He took money from a veteran instead
of giving it to save the veteran's dog. I mean,
this guy lied about everything that he's Jewish that you
know on top of that is family Holocaust survivors. I mean,
what is it that the man did not lie about.
I mean, it's from his name all the way down
to god knows what so good for Mitt Romney. It
almost reminds me of the scene in the movie Step Brothers,
right when he said, I just want to punch you
in the face, right, you know, and he goes, there's
just something right, He goes, anything I can do? He goes, no, no,
you know, I just want to punch you in the face.
Simtos his face just sort of It just makes you
want to like slap them or just do something because
there's something so wrong about everything about this guy. From
standing at the aisle to shake Biden's hand, Mitt Romney
is one hundred percent correct when he said he should
not be there, and in fact Mitt Romney was saying
to him, you should go sit somewhere else where nobody
can see you.
Speaker 1: And I want to make two points there though. One though,
is about the media, you know, and when the media
asked Romney, why did you make a point to say
that to them or say that to him? And Romney
goes because he was standing right there. I think that
kind of sums up the media though, right, because there
are so many things, there are so many lies, there's
so much disinformation, there's so much disturbing things that Maga
Republicans that are just right there in front of the
media's eyes and they do nothing about it. In fact,
they help people like George Santos, and they help people
like Kevin McCarthy, They help people like Ron DeSantis, they
help people like Donald Trump, rather than when it's staring
them in the eyes, just calling them out and saying,
here is the issue. You need to sit over there,
Call out these traders, call them to their face, call
them out who they are. That is your job.
Speaker 2: Media.
Speaker 1: So the fact that the media goes, well, why'd you
confront him? And Ron is like, cause he's standing right there.
Speaker 2: That's why. Look, at some point in time, Ben, you know,
everybody has to be held to countle and the fact
that George Santos is not only not being held accountable
by Republicans, by members of Congress, he's actually sticking it
in everyone's face, walking around, loving the attention of the
cameras on top of him, loving watching Manu Raju chasing
him around the capital, you know, asking him, you know,
do you have no shame? Sir? Do you have no shame?
And the answer is why are you asking a rhetorical question? Manu? Right,
of course he has no shame the guy is a
frickin' liar to the nth degree. He doesn't care that
he lied. He doesn't care that based on the lies,
he managed to get elected. And shame on the Democrats
for not doing the most minutia, just the most minute
amount of investigatory work when doing their opposition research on him,
because that would have clearly come up the fact that
he did not go to that school, that his parents
are not Jewish, and YadA YadA, right, I mean, it
would have taken no time at all in order to,
you know, to acquire this information, not a skilled investigator,
just anybody with Google. So shame on us as Democrats
for not doing our homework and this is what you get.
And shame on the Republicans for not admonishing him. And
speaking of admonishments, you know, many years ago, when President
Barack Obama was doing a State of the Union address,
and it was in his second term, there was a
member of Congress by the name of Joe Wilson, I believe,
who stood up and he said something also to the
extent calling Obama a liar or something to that extent,
at which point in time he was admonished by Congress,
Republicans and Democrats alike admonished him, and good for them
for standing up for what's right. We this is not
parliament where you get up and you heckle the next guy.
We have our own rules, we have our own code
of conduct. And what Marjorie Taylor Green did, what Lauren
Bobert did, what Ted Cruz did, what Johnson did, what
a whole group of them did during that State of
the Union address, It's not just an embarrassment to them individually.
It's not just an embarrassed to the Republican Party. It's
an embarrassment to America in front of the whole world.
I guarantee you other countries are playing these clips all
over laughing at us. All right, And if we want
to be held to the highest level in the eyes
of the world, which I suspect that we do, or
at least we should, how do we allow these ask
clowns to do what they're doing and get away with
it with no repercussion. So since there's no repercussion, what
do you think happens at the next State of the Union.
It's gonna get worse. Marjorie Tail wanted to walk in
with a balloon with a big white balloon, thinking that
it's funny about the Chinese weather balloon or whatever that
balloon was that was flying over America. She's clearly deranged
and she needs to go along with Santos and so
many others, and not because they're Republicans. Replace them with
Republicans for all I care, but just ones that are sane,
ones that care more about the country than they're three
four five minutes on Newsmacks, Oh Wayan or Fox.
Speaker 1: But Cohen, are there any sane Republicans? I could show
the image of Romney walking past Santos as the image
of what the Republican Party may once have been walking
by as the new Republican Party of Santos and Marjorie
Taylor Green and Lauren Bobert are standing right there. I
think they're very emblematic of who the Republican Party is.
They are a bunch of liars. I mean, you want
to just take the State of the Union address when
Biden said, look, these Republicans who are here, they want
to cut your Social Security, they want to take away
your Medicare. They have a plan to do that to
make sure it all sunsets and all these Maga Republican
senators and members of Congress go around to their base
and they give speeches that are recorded about them saying
things that they want to cut Social Security and they
want to take away your medicare. They've said it as
recent as the past few weeks. I mean heck Ron
Johnson said it today on a radio interview. And then
when Biden here's the script. This is from a radio interview.
As we are speaking Cohen, this took place, and the
interviewer says, one of the few bipartisan applause lines of
Tuesday night was related to the notion that both sides
should agree not to touch Social Security and medicare. By
the way, that's not true. When Biden said it, the
Maga Republicans booed because they claim that they were supporting
it when they weren't supporting it. And then the interviewer goes,
I get the reflexive political applause to that idea, but
these entitlement programs do need reforms. They don't have to
be cuts, but they need reforms, and we need to
do serious adult We need serious adults in Washington, d C.
Who are willing to take on the challenge and do
the work instead of engaging in this political arson against
each side when it's even mentioned. Would you agree with that,
Ron Johnson, MAGA Republican. Yes, That's what I've talked about
from the first time I ran in twenty ten. I
just laid out the reality of social Security. It's a
legal Ponzi scheme. It is. It's a pay as you
go system. I mean, calling social Security a Ponzi scheme
something that is criminal and illegal, is not saying that
they're supportive of social Security. And that just happened right now.
And then you look to okay, as Romney's going that direction,
as MAGA Republicans are represented by Santos and Bobert and
Marjorie Taylor Green and Gomer and Gosaw. I mean, you
can't really name a single normal you know, MAGA Republican.
And this is why. Here, this is what Donald Trump,
the cult leader of the MAGA Republican Party. This is
what he's been doing in the past like twelve to
twenty four hours. So here's a post that he made
where he's reposting this account on his social media platform
Lara with three Stars and CSM Master or whatever. This
is like, this is a photo that he's posting of himself,
like some cartoonish photo of him on an American flag
with the eagles behind him, American flag tank, big flag energy,
it's some like this is some really weird and six
stuff here. Let's pull up this other one that he did.
He reposted this from somebody named Cocoa Beans that says
clowns have infiltrated every system around the globe. Trump is
a master communicator, leads them around by the nose and
then shines light. The storm is brewing. Expect huge waves
and you just spelled y uge, gonna be biblical. Seek
shelter if in harm's way. Then there's this creepy photo
of Trump that says, Fate whispers to Trump, you cannot
withstand the storm. Trump whispers back, I am the storm.
That's a QAnon meme. That's a meme of a death
cult that he is posting on his social media platform.
And he is the leader of the Republican Party, the
Maga Republican Party, which it is today. That's what's going on,
and they don't call that out, and frankly, the large
media networks don't point that out. And as I've always said, Cohen.
If Biden, for all of the things we've said about
him on the show today, if he did one QAnon post,
just one, even with all of the accomplishments that he did,
confirm that he actually did it, Or any Democratic leader
they did one QAnon post and they really did it,
I'd stop supporting them because you have to have standards.
If you're willing to do that, there is no bottom.
So even for all the great that Biden's accomplished, I
would say you're out. We should impeach him if he's
doing q andon memes. Yet, for the Maga Republican Party,
they don't just tolerate death cult behavior, they're led by it.
Speaker 2: But then again, then we're referring to the Maga group,
and the Maga group is not the Republican Party. That's
the point, on top of everything else. Despite making the
Democratic Party bigger, better, stronger, so that our values, our
wishes and wants are heard, you know, by Washington and
effectuated by members of Congress and the President, there are
Republicans that do not agree with trump Ism. There are
Republicans that are not part of the Maga cult. These
people are easier to work with. This is why that
there has been, as Joe Biden stated, three hundred bills
signed so far to date in just two years that
are bipartisan. It's a record number three hundred and that's
again according to the President and the State of the
Union address. So there are actually good Republicans. And again
it's whether you agree with six out of the twelve
things that they stand for or two out of the
twelve things that they stand for. But it doesn't matter
as long as that they're saying this group of ar
fifteen wearing help in dopes. These people do not belong
in our house. They do not They do not stand
for American value, they do not stand for the Constitution.
They stand for autocracy. And if they had it their way,
we'd all be living in Guilliad under their rule. That's
what they want. You know.
Speaker 1: I still struggle to find who the you know, who
these normal MAGA Republicans are, because even when I think, okay,
Larry Hogan and then he makes some statement like well,
if Donald Trump was our nominee, I'd support him, and
I was like, okay, well, I'm struggling to find him.
I think the party has been taken over by maga Republicans.
I think it's very unfortunate. I think, to the extent
there are normal Republicans, they have allowed that themselves to
be co opted. They could have taken a powerful stand
against the craziness, and frankly, Kevin McCarthy could have. Kevin
McCarthy would have had far more power and his what
will definitely be his short tenure would be far less humiliating.
He could have actually been a strong speaker, because all
he would have needed to have done is pull over
ten or fifteen Democrats, come up with a plan to
actually solve the nation's problems, and I think a lot
would be accomplished, and Kevin McCarthy could be viewed in
history as someone who did the right thing instead, rather
than playing to the center of the United States of America,
instead of listening to what was actually occurring in the midterms,
where people were saying we want normalcy, he went in
the opposite direction. And rather than appeal to the center
and appeal to most Americans. You know, and by the way,
concepts that I think are you I say the center,
but we're talking about concepts that should be universal at
the end of the day, like healthcare and jobs, and
infrastructure and protecting our veterans and making sure a woman
has control over our body. I mean, you know, go
on and on and on. But instead he played to
Matt Gates and Marjorietail Green and Lauren Bobert. And now
you see these committee hearings that we talked about on
the show, and so I do want to talk about the.
Speaker 2: You know what you also see, Ben is you see
the decent Republicans basically getting voted out, which is very scary.
One of our brigaders made a mention in a comment
which I totally agree with, that MAGA is taking over
the Republican Party. I don't believe that they're there yet,
but when you see people like Adam Kinzinger, who is
a veteran and who is you know, a man of principle,
getting tossed out simply because he wasn't MAGA enough, that's
the time that we need to really stand up. That's
the time that you know, our supporters, you know, our brigaders,
that we all need to start bringing more people into
the political go beat down into the midas, into the
Maya culpa world so that they understand and that they
stay properly informed. All the time, and that as a group,
we are a significant voting block to ensure that people
like the Marjorie Taylor Greens, Josh Ally, Ted Cruise's, the
you know, Lauren Boberts. I mean, we can go on
and on with the same names over and over and over,
that they end up getting kicked out of Congress. Because
when I watch these these individuals walking around and that
they wear the congressional pin, whether it's around their neck
or on their lapels, it really burns me up because
you know, I worked I worked in the Congress. I
worked for Congressman Joe Moakley in nineteen eighty seven and
eighty eight while I was in college in Washington, d C.
And I tell you, I love that building and I
love working with everyone, Republicans and Democrats alike. And I
can tell you the group of people that were there
in those days are very different than the group that
are you know, in Congress today. And we need to fight,
That's all I can say. We need to be a
voting block, We need to be a force that is
going to be reckoned with. We need to hold people
to accountability. And I can go on and on, but
I'm going to go on with you, Ben to our
next topic.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about though, and this has got
to be near and dear to you, where the Maga
Republicans created this subcommittee about the weaponization of the Justice Department,
and they're saying the Biden Justice Department has been weaponized
against right wing people. Strangely, a lot of the things
they cite, though without any sense of irony, are people
that Donald Trump appointed, like Christopher Ray and things that
took place before January sixth. The Mega Republicans don't seem
to realize who the government was before January sixth than
before Biden took office. But you know, don't you think
the result is going to be similar to what we
saw with these you know, these Twitter hearings where they're
trying to say, oh, look, the Twitter has been weaponized
by Democrats, but at the end of the day, it hasn't.
It's all based on these Reddit or four Chan conspiracy
theories that these Maga Republicans try to play out. But
when they actually have to speak in committee hearings. What
I love about the committee hearings is that they're live.
They're not like Fox sound bites, so you can't just
get the two minutes of them getting kind of the
softball question from Fox that they could say, and you
really see just the difference of intelligence and truth on
the one hand with the Democrats on the committee and
the idiocracy, fascism, conspiracy theories, weirdness. You see it really
play out in these committee hearings. A total backfire, I
think for the MAGA Republicans, be careful what you asked for,
you want these committees. Essentially, the Democrats are using the
committees now to show with these witnesses that it was
Trump who would engage in all of it. They're like
gimmes for the Democrats. It's really incredible. What do you
make of this weaponization hearing? Though it has taken place
right now, the so called weaponization hearing, that's what the
MAGA Republicans are calling it.
Speaker 2: So this is an interesting scenario. Obviously, if you look
at the title of my book Revenge, How Donald Trump
weaponized the United States Department of Justice against his critics,
it's almost like a foreshadow to what's going on now.
Jim Jordan is leading this committee, and you know it
is a bipartisan committee. So I was having a conversation
with one of my lawyers Jeff Levigne, who by coincidence,
is a friend of mine for literally forty years, and
he was with me the day that I was unconstitutionally remained.
So one of the things that we did is we
drafted out two page documents and then sent a whole
slew of attachments. We sent it on the day that
this subcommittee was formed. We sent it to Jim Jordan,
We sent it to every single member of that committee,
Republican and Democrat alike, saying, I believe that you, like us,
want to see by partisan review of the weaponization of
the Department of Justice, because our Justice Department has taken
a massive beating in terms of public belief in their
you know, in who they are and what they stand for.
So we sent them all this documents stating that if
it's really to be a bipartisan, fair committee that is
attempting to get to the bottom of an issue, well
how about start with the case of the United States
versus Michael Cohen, And here are some documents in order
to demonstrate how Donald Trump, with the usage of Bill Barr,
weaponized the Department of Justice to unconstitutionally remand me because
I refuse to waive my First Amendment constitutional right, making
me the first political prisoner in my own country. If not,
what does that mean? That means that this is not
a real committee, That this is a mickey mouse. It's
a kangaroo committee that's simply established in order to go
after Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, doctor Fauci and whoever the
critic is that they feel that they need to go
after and this is really problematic. We will find out
what happens, because I do know that every single one
of these members have a copy of that letter with
the attachments. So stay tuned, Stay tuned, because as soon
as I find out anything, we will be reporting it
live first right here on Political Beatdown. Exactly what happens
and exactly their response. If they ignore it, we know
where they stand. If they dismiss it, we know where
they stand. If they accept it and they want to
have a bipartisan hearing, no problem. Now we also know
where they stand. And my hope is that Jim Jordan
actually does want to have the restoration of the image
of the Department of Justice. I really do hope that
the committee is established for the right reasons and not
the wrong reasons. And again I'm not confident in it,
but it is my hope, and we will find out
based upon how they elect to handle the weaponization of
Michael Cohen.
Speaker 1: Well, I think that to have any confidence in Jim
Jordan or anything would be misplaced, to say the least,
hope Spring Eternal. I am very confident though that it's
going to be an utter and complete fascist clown show.
You're gonna have Jim Jordan pointing all around with his
conspiracy theories, acting like a complete and utter moron, and
I think all you're going to show is that who
is weaponizing government are people like Jim Jordan, are people
like Matt Gates, And these are the people who want
to turn our democracy into a Russian style authoritarian oligarchy.
That is their goal, through their disinformation, through all their
authoritarian tactics. And that is why we will call it
out and continue to call it out here on the
Political Beatdown with Cohen and my Cells. I'm being told
Cohen that in terms of the Jack Smith, we're gonna
save that one for the Midas Touch podcast, as we're
coming up on an hour on this show, so everybody
can check out the Midas Touch brother podcast to hear
about special counsel Jack Smith and more on that. But Cohen,
some more breaking news from you on this show. I'm
so thrilled to be doing this number fourteenth in the nation. Really,
I just have so much fun doing this with you. Cohen.
It's a dream come true. I want to thank you,
want to thank everybody out there. Special shout out to
the Midas Mighty. Check out Cohen's book, Revenge. It's out
right now. It's an incredible, incredible book How Donald Trump
weaponized the US Department of Justice against his critics. Revenge,
the book by Michael Cohen, and also check out store
dot Midas Touch dot com for the best pro democracy gear,
including the Maya Kulpa podcast shirts. At the Mara Lardo
Correctional Facility, you'll occasionally see Michael Cohen wearing the host
shirts when you see him in New York City. That's
store dot Midas Touch dot com. And in addition to
subscribing to the YouTube channel here, subscribe to the audio
Let's get this to become the number one audio podcast
in the country, in the world. So just get subscribe
search search Political Beatdown, Now subscribe and leave a five
star review. Let's get that number fourteen to number one,
and also check out Cohen's podcast. His other podcast which
is incredible, Maya Kulpa Nothing but the Truth. That's where
Cohen goes one on one with a number of guests.
It's through Audio Up. They do a great job and
the Midas Touched Network. Check out Maya Kulpa. Make sure
you subscribe there as well. I'm Ben Mysellas joined by
Michael Cohen. Thank you to the Beatdown Brigade.
Speaker 2: Thank you to the Beatdown Brigade. Stay safe, my friends,
all right and we will see you in a couple
of days.