Speaker 1: Welcome to Political beat Down. I'm Ben Macellis joined by
Michael Cohen. Cohen, we should start off Political Beatdown with
a beatdown some Republican on Republican violence, physical violence. That is,
in Georgia the State of the State speech. Governor Brian
Kemp was delivering the speech and there was a kind
of Trump cultist state senator there by the name of
Colton Moore. And then the Republican governor, Brian Kemp said
to Coulton Moore, you got to stay out. You can't
come into the chambers and watch my speech. Then the
Maga state senator tried to enter the chambers and then
another Republican kind of threw him to the ground. I
want to play it. There's a broader point I want
to make here though, as we talk about the people
closest to Trump at this point, people like this guy
Coulton Moore, who's being thrown to the floor in Georgia.
Here play this clip.
Speaker 2: I have an obligation to be in that room. I
represent two hundred.
Speaker 3: Thousand people in northwest Georgia who duly elected me to
be here today.
Speaker 1: So that's Trump's preferred state senator in Georgia. Trump doesn't
like Brian Kemp. That went physical right there, Republican on
Republican physical violence. But even right now, Cohen, we're seeing
in the House you had Mike Turner, a Republican who
chaired the Oversight Committee, getting fired by MAGA Mike Johnson.
Turner was a big supporter of Ukraine and NATO, and
Donald Trump ordered MAGA Mike Johnson to get rid of
Turner from chairing the House Intelligence Committee, that is, and
then they fired him. Know, and this guy has been
a member of Congress since two thousand and three. So Cohen,
you've predicted this because you've lived this. This is what
happens with Trump's lack of leadership, the infighting, the people
like Turner who tried to be on his good side
get kicked out. You know, we're seeing the story again,
the sequel those though.
Speaker 2: This is not a Trump lack of leadership issue. It's not.
I'll tell you what it is. It's the knife fighting
amongst the group. And if you may remember the old
mythology story of Icarus, right the guy who had the
wax wings and flew too close to the sun. The
wings melted and he plummeted to Earth and died. It's
the same thing. Consider Trump in this case, to be
the Sun, and all of these folks, including the guy
that got you know, that got smacked down, all of
them trying to be Icarus. They're trying to fly close
to the Sun. Much of the stuff that they're doing
is performative in hopes that Donald recognizes and that somebody
sees what they did. In fact, even if Trump didn't
see what took place, they would make sure that that recording,
that that clip gets sent to him so he could
see exactly. Well. When Carlton Moore was arrested today, his
case will now be prosecuted by the Fulton County DA.
I believe her name is Fannie Willis. Yeah. My point being,
they want this performative theater, this political theater, to take
place in that way. They think that Donald Trump will
come to their rescue, that Donald Trump will shine his
light upon them and they will become elevantor in the system.
And by the way it's worked for many, it has
failed for even more.
Speaker 1: You know, when I look though at Trump's approval rating
right now, fifty five percent disapproved, unfavorable, which is fairly
unprecedented leading up to it is unprecedented leading up to
an inauguration, no matter who you are. Usually when you
get elected, that's like your period of goodwill, right because
you're incoming. The country usually rallies around someone. So usually
you're above water. If Trump was even slightly above water,
that would be underperforming. I think Biden was close to
sixty five seventy percent at his inauguration. So the fact
that the approval rating is underwater and really a significant
amount of the country disapproves of what's going on. At
some point, the buck stops at the top. I mean,
as he keeps talking about external revenue service when we
tarif all of these nations and annex these nations. Cohen,
I could be wrong. I mean, he's doing all of
the distraction tactic. But it does seem that a lot
of people, though, are saying like, like, well, he's.
Speaker 2: Doing the distraction tactic for himself. It's not done for
this guy that got slammed down. It's not for anyone else.
He's doing it all for himself. This guy again, Yeah,
he didn't. He didn't reach out to Trump and said, hey,
I want to go in What do you think you know?
Should I make a spectacle. No, that's not what happened.
I've watched this knife fighting for years. I watched it
take place when the when the campaign in twenty fifteen
started and there were only, believe it or not, a
handful of people that were even involved. It was less
than six and the knife fighting started there with Corey Lewandowski,
and then again it started with Paul Manifort. Wow, the
fighting between Lewandowski and Manifort was insane. And if you
think that was bad, after Maniford got his problems, then
you had Steve Bannon come in. You could only imagine
the knight fighting between Steve Bannon and Lewandowski. It wasn't
even a fair fight. It was like Steve Bannon had
a bazooka and Lewandowski had a rubber band. And so
Lewandowski of course got outed and Steve Bannon became the
macher amongst the group. The only thing that I'm curious
and I bring up. I bring this up because now
that's right, it's Bannon versus Musk. And you know, this
is a tough one because Trump knows the value of
Steve Bannon, and there is a value to him in
that specific group. But he also is not ignorant to
the fact that Elon Musk wields a mighty powerful stick,
really powerful all right, in multiple different sectors. In fact,
it's so there's so much fighting, internal fighting going on,
especially now that Musk put out that he's going to
have an office in the executive building across the street
and wants to know what his actual ability within which
to walk around the White House. I mean, this is
crazy shit, my friends. It's why I'm going to say
this from now till the end of time. It's why
networks like this, independent media are so important. It's why
all of the properties on my Just Touched network are
important to listen to. Because you're not getting this from
lane stream media or cable news. You're not. You're getting
it from somebody myself specifically, who's been there. And I
know this game inside better than anyone, and I'm trying
to give you the benefit of the knowledge that I
experience living through it. And there are other people that
had that experience too, guys like in Anthony Scaramucci, who
actually knows what he's talking about here. In this specific situation,
Elon Musk is actually talking about the availability that he
will have the unfettered access to the White House. Now,
I want to remind everybody that neither Elon Musk nor
Vivik Ramaswami are actual agencies. It is a program designed
by Donald Trump or on behalf of Donald Trump. And
so why they have an office in the Executive Building,
I don't know why they believe that they should have
unfettered access to the White House and the President, I
don't know. Is it a dangerous proposal? Is it a
dangerous proposition? Absolutely? Does that mean it's not going to happen. No,
Steve Bannon turned around and said, over his dead body,
is he going to allow it? Which is kind of
interesting because Steve Bannon, while he's in the mix, he's
really on the outs. So we're in for a real,
real shit show, there's no other way to describe it.
And that shit show, my friends, starts on Monday. It
starts on Monday because the first thing we know that's
going to happen is there is going to be a party,
a post inauguration party that is going to include the
signing by Trump of hundreds of executive orders. And that's
the danger, that's all the danger.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, it's Uh, surprising to me, Well, not
surprising to me, but you have so many people saying,
is he gonna do the tariffs? Is he gonna do Yes?
He is, Yes, he's gonna do the tariffs on day one.
He's gonna put twenty five percent. It's and then the
markets get shocked as though, h.
Speaker 2: He did it. Oh you did it. Yeah, yeah, he
did it.
Speaker 1: He said he's gonna do it. What do you think
he's gonna do? Twenty five percent tariffs on Canada, twenty
five percent tariffs on Mexico, a huge tariff on our
allies in the European Union, an additional ten percent tariff
on China. And then what will start to see happen immediately,
and all of these countries are preparing for it right
now are their retaliatory tariffs against US, where they're going
to order their industries not to purchase American products. So
the soybean farmers, for example, saw this in Trump administration one.
China was their biggest market. They made a lot of money.
So what happened China said, we're not getting soybeans from
America anymore. We're going to Brazil. We'll invest in Brazil.
So then the soybean farmers had a huge surplus of product.
Then what happened the government had to give them subsidies
that basically funded them, a government handout that funded them,
and the subsidies a little bit less now, but basically
a lot of the farming industry from Trump administration tariff
number one, they're being funded by the government. At the
same time the government saying it wants to do all
of these other cuts and so Cohen, you're right, I mean,
up until this point, look, it's already been chaos. It's
already been one of the most chaotic, strange, dangerous, harmful
transitions I think in American history. But it's a show
right now until the power actually take place on the
date of the inauguration, and then when the power is
implemented and these concepts become real things that nobody really
asks for other other than Donald Trump, it's going to
have a major impact. It's gonna send I think a
shockwave through the markets. Now, I'll show you this Cohen
as well, and Jeremy, I think we've got these clips.
This is a bunch of Canadian leaders who have been
uniting and they've been coming up with their plans for
how they're gonna do this.
Speaker 4: Let me show you this is a unified Canadian front
other than the Alberta premiere, all the other provincial premiers,
many of who are conservative, some are Liberal. And then
you have on the federal side Justin Trudeau Liberal Party.
This is a conservative from Ontario, doug Ford. Let me
show you what he says here about he goes and
this is the David Bidone clip. Jeremy doug Ford knows
how to pump Canada's tires here.
Speaker 5: Let's play this clip.
Speaker 6: Political parties sitting down and we have a robust conversation.
We may agree or disagree, but we're coming out united.
I can tell you spending a lot of time in
the US, you would never see a group of Democrats
and Republicans sitting here collaboratively. I promise you one thing.
President and Trump's off as a whole bunch of Democrats
and Republicans saying, how can we attack Canada. That's not happening.
We have the greatest country, we have the greatest elected officials,
the greatest democracy in the world. That we can sit
here from one extreme to the other extreme.
Speaker 2: In the middle.
Speaker 6: And I have always said I don't care about political stripes.
I don't care if you're from the Orange Party, the
Blue Party or the Red Party. We're going to be united.
We're Canadian. We're going to get this done.
Speaker 5: As fall up to the Prime Minister is Auto and Cohen.
Speaker 1: That guy used to be a Magas supporter. He used
to be a Trump supporter, Doug Ford, What do you
make of about it?
Speaker 2: What I make of it is keep talking. You know,
one thing Trump understands better than most is power and
also how to abuse it when he turns around. I
don't think that Canada is going to get annexed. I don't.
I think that would be I just think that would
be insane. To be very honest with you, I don't.
I don't even know what the right adjective is in
order to describe it. But one thing I can tell
you for certain is that he will impose tariffs on Canada.
He did it in twenty seventeen. I don't know why
people refuse to read. I don't know why they refuse
to do. Just the most minutia of research, and you
will see that Trump went ahead and he imposed tariffs
on Canada, for example, on lumber. What happened to the
lumber market. The price of soft lumber shot up through
the roof. He then went ahead and he also imposed
tariffs on aluminum. Well, that pissed the shit off of
Pepsi and Coca Cola and others, and the price of
cans right bottling shot up through the roof. Well, this
is no good. They started getting a lot of pushback
and so on. So what did he do? He gave
them a waiver. So he did put in tariffs, but
then he gave them a waiver. He didn't just do
that with Canada, he did it with other countries as well.
So my point at that time was, what's the point
if you're going to put a tariff on and then
give everybody a waiver except for the little guy? Well,
how does that actually work? How does that help? And
on top of that, please understand, twenty seven of the
twenty nine most prestigious economists in the United States have
all turned around and they put forth it would be
like in law called an amicus brief. They put together
explanation a memo explaining the danger and the damage that
a tariff on Canada, on China and other countries would
cause to this country. And yet the Tom mccrachums. The
geniuses amongst geniuses there that are going to be part
of this new administration, many of them are in finance.
In fact, the bulk of the people who are going
to be taking over are actually finance guys. Whether it's
the Lutnx of the world, whether it's the John Phalans
of the world, they all know finance really, really well,
and whether they're turning on oh yeah, they do. Let
me tell me ask you.
Speaker 1: I know they have big finance jobs, Cohen, but how
come every time?
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, please. Howard Lutnik is the CEO
of cant Fitzgerald. He's purchased many, many companies. He knows finance.
John Fhalen is going to be Secretary of the Navy.
He ran Michael Dell's money for I don't even know.
As long as I know him twenty five years, get
twenty four years, give or take. He is wickedly bright
in finance. They know finance, and they know what the
tariffs will do to this country. But out of fear
and I just mentioned these two because I know them
both personally for over two decades. They both know the
damage that tariffs will do to this economy. They're just
concerned about expressing that concern for fear that they'll get
booted before they even get started.
Speaker 1: You know, every time the people who know finance seem
to take control of government, it always seems that we
wind up in recessions. They always pitch us on trickle
down economics, which never actually benefits the people. The stock
market never does as well. Again, jobs not really being created.
I mean you look at the you know, the Democrats
have the rap as being not as strong on the economy, right,
that's the wrap the public perception, right, is Republicans better
on the economy. Well, when you look at the past
thirty or forty years, of the fifty million jobs that
were created, forty eight million of the fifty million jobs
were created by Democratic administrations. With all of these finance
people complaining about the Biden economy, right, their biggest metric
at the high levels, not the average person. They're going
at the high levels the markets. Right where the market
or the market's doing good with Biden. The markets were
up fifty five to sixty percent over Donald Trump. So
if you're a smart finance person and you go which
one do you like better? The fifty to sixty percent
return or the person who had the economy basically sinking
to levels that weren't as bad as it's the great.
Speaker 2: Totally agreed, but I think that that aspect has to
be broken down into two, into two different areas. Let
me go back and say, for example, during the Trump
earlier his first administration, Steve Minuchin, who is a finance
guy with a big had a big hedge fund, was
actually a pretty decent Treasury secretary, all right. And I
just want to say to our brigaders, I need you
all to understand something. This isn't Michael Cohen bending and knee.
This is Michael Cohen telling you a fact. Now that
fact may not comport to what you want to hear.
It's just the difference. I'm not here to play that game.
There's facts and then they're non fact all right, And
I want to give to you what I know to
be factually accurate, whether you like it or not, because
when the shit hits the fan, and I'm telling you
it will, the shit will be hitting the fan. You
really need to be armed with facts, not Disneyland, in
order for us to be able to as a community
do what is needed in order to ensure that things
don't occur the way that many believe this administration is
going to try to shove it down our throats. All right,
That's that's the problem. And I know a lot of people,
you know, Yeah, you rather have Michael Cohen come on
here and turn around and you know, say this, to
say that I understand what's going on in that world
better than all of you because I lived it. And
not only did I live it on the side of Trump,
I lived it as the enemy, all right, So I
really have a very different perspective. I've seen all of
these players in action, and again, I just want to
arm you with information, all right, with legitimate information, because again,
I live in reality. If you want to live in Disneyland,
you know, that's in California, or it's in Florida. That's
where you need to go. There's too many people that believe, Oh,
just because Michael Cohen's not shitting on Donald Trump, you know,
doesn't mean I'm taking a knee. I'm certainly not running scared.
I'm living in a fucking Trump building, for God's sakes,
the same building Ivanka and Jared live in. Where the
fuck am I running? So it's time for people to
open up their eyes, listen, listen to what's being told
to you. And I'm not trying to preach to you.
I'm trying to tell you we as a community are
going to desperately need to band together. It's why this
is not the time to shy away from the Midas
Touch network or from my Maya Kulpa podcast YouTube channel. No,
this is the time to not only become cohesive with
this network and it's different properties, but also to get
your friends to join so that they understand what is
actually coming down the road, all right, Not listening to
the nonsense off of whether it's the far left of
the far right believing that you know, one that the
world is coming to a complete end it's not all right,
or two that Trump is going to be able to
accomplish every single thing that he says that he and
his people want to do, which they will not. But
there are many things that are coming down this road
that are not beneficial to the American people, to the
to the ten eleven, twelve megabillionaires mega megabillionaires that are
helping to become or to make America become some form
of an oligarchy, a constitutional oligarchy. We as a community
must be there and we must be vigilant in terms
of getting the correct, the true, and the factually accurate
information to each and every one of you. And that's
what I will continue to do.
Speaker 1: And Cohen the correct, true, factual information, though, is that
this is coming from Donald Trump. This is because of
Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: It's because of him. It's not necessarily coming from him,
I Project twenty twenty five. It's not coming from him.
It's coming from a disgusting group of individuals who have
set up a manifesto to destroy our democratic republic.
Speaker 1: The fact that he's implemented.
Speaker 2: Is, well, he hasn't implemented it yet. But the conversation said.
Speaker 1: Going to impl But you said on day one, he's
going to the executive orders. You reference that he was
going to implement on days one.
Speaker 2: Whole lot in Project twenty twenty five, there's a whole lot,
more than one hundred of them.
Speaker 1: Well, I never it's going to be thousands of executive
orders on day one. The omb head that Donald Trump
appointed Russ Vote. He spoke before the Senate at his
confirmation hearing, and this is the guy who you know,
we previously played clips of him months ago. He said,
I'm working with Donald Trump behind the scenes, and we're
going to have thousands of orders on day one. So
it's coming from Trump. Trump appointed the Project twenty twenty
five guy to implement Project twenty twenty five. It's not
a complicated thing to me. This is Russ's vote saying
it at the confirmation hearing. This is who Trump put
in power, the guy who wrote it to do it.
Here play this clip.
Speaker 2: I absolutely will abide by the Constitution at all times.
Speaker 7: And your interpretation does not pardon the pun Trump, the
interpretation of the Supreme Court or at current practice on
the books.
Speaker 5: Again, administration. There's a very, very extensive policy process with this.
Speaker 7: I see how this bureaucratic, wonky answer you keep giving. Right,
you're claiming to be an outsider that says you're going
to shake things up, but you're giving the.
Speaker 5: Most wonky answers.
Speaker 7: I just want to hear that when you hold up
your hand like many of us have done in this
room to put themselves in harm's way, that you're going
to protect and defend the Constitution as interpreted by the
people who are in a position to interpret it, like
our Supreme Court and that's what it bothers me about you.
It's not that we disagree on policy. It's that basic
tenet that a lot of us have had to do
in this room on both sides of the aisle.
Speaker 8: That's all I care about.
Speaker 7: I just I wish from nominees that we see across
the board just be straight on the US Constitution.
Speaker 1: Trump was like, I want that guy on my team.
He's the Project twenty twenty five guy to lead the OMB. Also,
this guy, Scott Scott Bessant. Take a look at this exchange.
And by the way, Scott Bessant, he worked for George Soros.
He was George Soros's top guy for all of the
magas George Soros money managing. This guy literally was George
Soros's guy. Then started his own hedge fund. And he's
asked this question by Bernie about will you agree to
raise the minimum wage which is seven dollars and twenty
five cents, And the guy says, no, I'm not going
to do that. We're not we are against living wages.
Here play this clip.
Speaker 3: Right now, in America, we have over twenty two million
workers who are making less than fifteen dollars an hour.
Speaker 5: And nearly forty million people.
Speaker 3: In our country earning less than seventeen dollars an hour. Shamefully,
the federal minimum wage, despite the efforts of myself and
other people here, have not been raised since two thousand
and nine and remains an unbelievable well seven dollars and
twenty five cents. And now, will you work with those
of us who want to raise the federal minimum wage
to a living wage to take millions of Americans out
of poverty?
Speaker 9: Senator, I believe that the minimum wage is more of
a statewide and regional issue.
Speaker 3: So you don't think we should change the federal minimum
wage of seven dollars and twenty five cents an.
Speaker 5: Now, no, sir, okay, Vestant.
Speaker 1: You know, I mean, I just want you to think
about that. At the same time they're talking about their
priorities are the tax cuts for the billionaires, they're also
saying they're also saying that here's here's this other clip
of bessent Jeremy It's it's it's not the immediate clip after.
It's the one where Besson says enacting Trump's tax giveaways
for billionaires is the single most economic important economic issue
of the day.
Speaker 9: Here play this clip, Senator, Senator Crapo, thank you for this,
and thank you there for the meetings over the past
few weeks. I've enjoyed working with your staff. And this
is the single most important economic issue of the day.
This is past fail that if we do not they
fix these tax cuts, if we do not renew and extend,
then we will be facing an economic calamity.
Speaker 2: So it's funny. I just don't get how when I
watched him say that, I just kept scratching my head again,
because facts matter. We will face an economic calamity. You me,
the ninety nine percent of this country, not that one
percent or tenth of one percent. So if hypothetically Elon Muskmorek, Zuckerberg,
Jeff Bezos, you know, they ended up paying their fair
share in taxes, So maybe he wouldn't be worth five
hundred billion dollars, he'd only be worth four hundred billion.
I can assure you that there's not one person watching
this segment right now that will go home and cry
for him and say, holy shit, we're gonna put ourselves
into an economic calamity. If in fact, you know Elon Musk,
worbizos so a Zuckerberger. One of them has to pay
one hundred million dollars out of their hundreds of billions
of dollars of net worth that they're going to have
to pay. This What an economic calamity that you and me?
How are we ever going to afford gasoline and groceries
under such a circumstance? I don't know.
Speaker 1: You know, it's such a great point there, Cohen. It's
how I believe in capitalism. I mean, I don't believe
in a in a I don't believe in a capitalism though,
where billionaires get unfair advantage. That's what happens. I believe
there needs to be anti trust enforcement. I believe billionaires
need to pay their fair share. It seems that we
basically have social welfare for billionaires and not actually people
who are deserving and who need things to help them
rise to positions that would benefit the entire economy. But
it's a great point, like what do you do with
a billion dollars? What do you do with one hundred
million dollars? Like what do you do with ten million?
Speaker 2: Funny thing? You're right, you can't spend a billion dollars.
I know several people who are worth you know into
that one plus billion dollar number, they live the life
that every American dreams of. All right, their children's children,
their great grandchildren will never have to work a day
in their in their lives. Now, imagine somebody worth fifty billion,
all right, Okay, so instead of having five grandkids or
ten grand kids with more money than they know what
to do with, they can have twenty. And then what
if you're worth one hundred or two hundred or five
hundred billion. I mean, do you realize that five hundred
billion dollars is more than some of the third world countries?
I mean, it's it's it's insane. It's absolutely insane. And
what it does is it gives a certain amount of
power to Look, we're all watching, is what's going on
with TikTok. All right? Whether you like the app but
you don't irrelevant. But now they're talking about selling TikTok,
which has one hundred and seventy million Americans using it.
One hundred and seventy that's like half the country is
on that app, and it's functioning, it makes money. They're
gonna sell it to Elon Musk Why because he's got
the money to buy it. And now that'll be another platform.
So now you have x roomed, you'll have TikTok ruined
Washington Post under Bezos roomed. I mean, why have any
new paper, why have any app right? Just have it
run by government and it be state run, just like
they have in Russia, just like they have in Russia,
because there will never be honesty, there will never be facts.
It will always be whitewashed information within which to back
the administration that is in power. And that, my friends,
is the beginning to the end of our democratic republic.
You know.
Speaker 1: And look, I'm not sure if Musk is. I heard
there was a rumor about Musk, but I don't know.
Speaker 2: You know, if that's it's not a rumor on TikTok,
I actually have because I have like three hundred and
sixty thousand followers on it. I have a TikTok manager
and I spoke to him yesterday about an issue and
I started talking to him and he's in the inner circle.
And it's not a rumor. There is conversation within which
to sell it to a Musk controlled entity. You know.
Speaker 1: As that's going on, you have Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos,
Mark Zuckerberg. They're going to be sitting right next to
Donald Trump at the inauguration, right, so you're going to
have a billionaire's row right there, to which even some
of the MAGA people are like like what, Like, we
aren't we against these people? Wait a minute. Now they're
paying Donald Trump, and so now we're supposed to be
for them. But here are the facts Cohen as well.
While Donald Trump is serving up at his Palm Beach
golf course trump Burgers with his face on it, here
are the issues that Americans are going through. Egg prices
are at their highest yet, jump twenty five percent in December.
Mortgage rates are climbing to their highest point yet because
they don't necessarily follow interest rates, They follow the ten
year yield for the bond market, which is pricing in
a lot of the problems that is foreseeable with the
way Donald Trump's going to be running things. Many people
expected mortgage rates, if Kamala Harris would have won, would
have been closer to five to four and a half percent.
But now they're going back up, and experts are saying
that food prices are here to stay. Also, there's no
peace deal in Ukraine, as Donald Trump promised. Within twenty
four hours. And so while Donald Trump's going to try
to distract us with all of these different things, I've
been calling it a weapon of mass distraction. I think
we always have to be focused. If we could remain disciplined,
and look, I'm not saying ignore the crazy shit that
he's going to say, because it's dangerous and could have
real implications. But I always want to remind Americans of
what he promised, the lies, the outright fraud, and I
think if we can focus on that, there is a
strong possibility we can start waking some of these Americans
up who stayed on the sideline or who even voted
for him by appealing to just the reality and truth
right now, which you know we're going to do each
and every day. We only have one ad break today,
it's a short one. Before go into that ad break,
I want to remind everybody about Michael Cohen's YouTube channel
at The Michael Cohen Show. Make sure you subscribe to it.
It's now Owen Show and also patreon dot com slash
Political Beatdown.
Speaker 2: Check that out.
Speaker 1: Also the Maya Culpa Blue podcast, not the Red, just
search Maya Culpa on audio devices. When we come back,
we will talk more about some of these confirmation hearings.
We'll talk more about some other breaking news today and
excited for that, we'll take our first and only break
of the show.
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Speaker 1: Those are great ad reads. I mean, I think you
come for the political analysis and you get some coen
ed ads.
Speaker 2: I mean, you really got I mean, what could be
better than that? Could be better than that is a
hamburger with Trump's a stamped into your bun. I mean,
you know, you really, you really do have to say
that there's something about someone who wants to have their
face even emblazoned into a bun that they're selling at
your golf course. I mean, it is truly spectacular.
Speaker 1: I can go into what Stormy Daniels had to say
on Kimmel, but my dogs don't want me to do
that right now, and I want to retain our large audience,
So let's stick to the We'll stick to the news
right now.
Speaker 2: And the juiciest hamburger is there anything and you're able
to bite into and it just troops right down your hands.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's probably a direct correlation to having
your face on a hamburger and also having a very
tiny anyway, let let let let me let me go on.
Let's talk about this Scott Bessent confirmation hearing as well.
So he's asked a pretty basic question, which is are
there any policies proposed by Trump that you expect will
increase prices for famili It's a pretty basic question, right,
Like everybody agrees that these tariffs are going to increase prices.
Bloody mass deportations. When you take away the labor force,
that's going to increase prices. Watch what this guy says, though,
who Trump wants to be the treasure Resecretary, and it
will be the Treasury Secretary to watch this for.
Speaker 10: Any specific policies proposed by the President elect that you
expect will increase prices for families.
Speaker 5: There's nothing I can immediately think of, so that's no.
Speaker 10: If the President elect were to propose a policy that
you believe will increase prices, would you advise against it?
Speaker 5: I would advise.
Speaker 9: I would speak to President Trump about it.
Speaker 5: It is his decision, and I believe that.
Speaker 9: We think that if we look back, that it is
a complete composite return in terms of aggregate inflation numbers,
and I think it's very difficult.
Speaker 10: Well, if you believe, I have limited times. So if
you believe that a policy that is proposed by President
Trump would increase prices, would you advise him against doing it?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Or no?
Speaker 9: I can't answer that question because it's a hypothetical.
Speaker 10: All right, Let's move on to when we met prior
to the hearing. You told me that President Biden was
responsible for increased prices over the past four years, something
we can litigate, but I don't want to.
Speaker 5: Right here.
Speaker 10: By the same token, I assume you would agree that
if prices increased in the next four years. President elect
Trump would be responsible.
Speaker 5: I think there could be a variety of reasons.
Speaker 2: I mean, it wasn't that amazing, isn't it? Is it
not amazing? But by the way, he's endemic of the problem.
The same thing. Anybody who's with us right now watched
during the confirmation hearings, whether it was Rubio, whether it
was heag Seth, whether it was Bondy, It made absolutely
no difference. They all turn around say the same thing
because they're all basically coached to say the same thing.
Ask me something, or if you're asked a question that's
a hypothetical, I don't answer hypotheticals. Well how could you
not answer hypothetical? Because Trump has not taken office and
nothing has happened yet. So we're just trying to find
out whether or not, Like a hypothetical that was asked
of the Supreme Court nominees, would you respect starry decisives
in the matter of Roe v. Wade? And of course,
of course you know, but you know it's a hypothetical.
But you know that law, you know that's there, and yeah,
we respect starry decisives. They never would answer the question outright,
And here each and every one of these individuals, especially Besson,
who you kind of almost have to feel sorry for.
He's flubbering over himself because he doesn't want to get
shit canned before he even gets nominated, right or he
gets put into into the position. He's sitting there. Yay,
he studied. Well, you know, Donald Trump could never be
at fault. How could Donald Trump ever be at fault?
And would I ever tell him that it's not a
good idea? Well, it's his, it's his decision to make.
That's not the role. That's not the role that you
are just supposed to succumb to any whim that comes
out of the executive office. You're actually supposed to turn
around and engage the president in conversation as to the
pros and the cons. Fuck. I know that better than anybody.
I did it for over a decade. I can't tell
you how many times he would get angry. He would
but then at the end, sometimes he would turn around
and change his position. Other times he would just go
with it. And that's okay. It is his decision to
do it. But you do have an obligation to the
American people, to yourself, to your own, to yourself to
turn around and to tell him if something that he
wants to propose is detrimental forgetting about to the country,
let's just say we don't care about the country. At
this point. You are brought on for a specific purpose.
If you believe that Trump is doing something in order
that will do harm to his own administration, aren't you
obligated to say something. This week's spineless piece of shit
couldn't even say that. He couldn't even say of course,
of course I would turn around and tell him that
I don't think that here are some options. There's a
reason why I believe that this is not good for
you forgetting about it, even talk about the country. It's
not good for you or the administration. Just take it
under advisement. That's what he could have said, you know.
Speaker 1: So then you go from that hearing to the confirmation
hearing of Pam Bondy, which is, you know, she basically
does the same approach, right. I mean, she's asked questions
have you heard this? What are your views on this?
And no matter what the question is, I never heard it,
not sure, can't really answer it. And so here Pam
Bondi claims she hasn't listened to Trump's call asking Georgia's
Secretary of State to find eleven thousand, seven hundred and
eighty votes.
Speaker 5: Here play this clip.
Speaker 11: Have you heard the recording of President Trump on January
TEWOD twenty twenty one, when he urged the Secretary of
State of Georgia to quote find eleven thousand, seven hundred
and eighty votes and declare him the winner of that state.
Speaker 8: No, I've heard about it through clips, but no, Senator,
I've not heard it.
Speaker 11: What was your reaction to the President Trump making that call?
Speaker 8: I have I would have to listen to the tape. Senator, Well, the.
Speaker 11: Quote that I give you is exact. He said to
the Georgia Secretary of State, find eleven thousand, seven hundred
and eighty votes.
Speaker 8: Do you have the entire context in that call? I
feel like it was long, much longer than that.
Speaker 11: Maybe it it was an hour long, and you can
certainly listen to it. I hope you will. Every American should.
As a former prosecutors, Are you not concerned that the
President of the United States called a state election a
fife and asked him to find enough votes to change
the results of the election.
Speaker 8: Senator, I have not listened to the hour long conversation.
But it's my understanding that is not what he asked
him to do.
Speaker 11: You need to listen to it.
Speaker 1: I mean you have that he or she is. She's
asked about QAnon and the fact that Trump's pick Cash
Battel to be the FBI director said that he agrees
with a lot of q and on stuff, and then
Pam Bondi goes q and on. I think I heard
of it, but I don't know what they actually do
here play this club.
Speaker 11: I did not expect you to be as outspoken as
you are about Cash Battel. He's been characterized as a professional,
career defense attorney and a career prosecutor. That's pretty amazing
achievement in his life. But he also has said and
done some things which are impossible to understand and justify.
For example, are you familiar with something called the QAnon Conspiracy?
Speaker 8: I have heard of it, but I I do not
know what it is. But I've heard of it many times, Senator.
Speaker 11: So let me tell you what I've learned about it.
The core belief is that a cabal of Satanic cannibalistic
child molesters are embedded within our government and are conspiring
against President elect Trump. They asked mister Patel about it,
and he said, quote, I agree with a lot that
the movement says, end of quote. Does that sound like
a good preparation to run the FBI?
Speaker 8: Senator, I don't know anything about I Actually I had
heard of QAnon that I've never heard that definition attached
to it.
Speaker 11: Until we get answers to those questions, I don't know
many people on this side of the table will give
him an unequivocal endorsement. This in his enemy's list, what
he calls his government gangsters. This is what you expect
of Stasi, This is what you expect of secret police.
It is not what you expect of justice in America,
as you've even described it at the table today. So
I would say this unequivocal support of mister Patel should
at least have some reservation until he explains some of
these outrageous positions he has taken.
Speaker 1: Right Cohen, It's the same thing I could show. Yet
they'll all say, I don't know, never heard of it,
never listen to it. That's not my understanding.
Speaker 2: You imagine her tournament saying that I haven't heard that recording.
I mean I'm not sure that there's anyone over the
age of fifteen that hasn't heard that recording of Donald
Trump asking Brad Rathensberger, the Secretary of State for Georgia,
to find him eleven seven hundred and eighty votes and
then went on, of course, to turn around to tell
him that you know, he wouldn't be doing you know, justice,
or he wouldn't be doing right if he doesn't. And
yet yet, even after being read the quote, to take
the sort of smug position that you know, I can't
answer that I don't know enough about it. Well, the problem,
the problem when you have seven minutes to ask a
question and then a second round four minutes, which I
don't think they did a second round for anyone. The
real problem that you have here is like if I
was if I was involved in Congress, what I would
have done is I would have turned around and I
would have brought all the Democrats together. And here's a
hundred questions that we want answers to with Pam Bondy. Now,
some people will not get an opportunity to actually ask questions.
For example, the person before who the person before would
have turned around and play the recording for her in
that way, knowing that she was going to turn around
and say, you know, I don't answer hypotheticals. I've never
heard it before. Well you just heard it. What do
you think about that? Right? They should work together because
so many of them asked similar questions, and all it
did is give her the opportunity within which to continue
to deflect because she was fully prepared for that. I mean,
don't think that any of these folks that are coming
in aren't fully prepared. And then the better part and
the ones who get my two fingers saluted today are
the Republicans that will turn around for somebody like Pete Hegseth,
like Mark Wayne Mullins, for God's sake, No, I got
to be honest with you. I think Mark Wayne Mullins
was the most effective Republican asking Pete Hegseth questions because
they were so complimentary. They were so that they were
there was humor in it. They were complimentary him. They
completely ignored all of the negatives, and they turn around,
you know who should you go ahead and think and when?
Of course Pete Heggseth, you know, forgot to thank his
wife for you know, providing him a family and children
and so on. He turned around, he had to remind
him he was great for Pete hegg Seth, he humanized
him and everything. But that's not what they're there for.
They're there to actually ask questions, substantive questions. And remember,
remember I went through that process seven times, but I
didn't have the luxury of a mere four hours, which
is what each one of these nominees had. Each of
my seven hearings were nine hours long, all right, sixty
three hours of it where one side just beat the
living shit out of you and the others asked you
to explain. I didn't have anybody turn around saying, oh,
I'm just calling You're a great family man. You've helped
so many people over the course of your I didn't
have any of I didn't have any ass rubbing. I
can assure you that, right, you know, and and I am.
I'm absolutely disgusted by the way that the Republicans were
turning around and for all of them, like including with
Pam BONDI, why didn't a Republican turn around and say
Ms Bondi, you're you're seeking to be confirmed by this
body as the next Attorney General, and on paper, your
CV is wonderful, But I cannot imagine considering every single
person that I know has heard of that tape with
Brad Rathensberger. Are you really telling us that you've never
heard that? You never watched the news and saw it.
You know, you didn't listen to any recordings. Have you
not been on any podcasts where they asked you anything
like that? I can't believe not a single Republican asked
a single question that wasn't anything other than blowing smoke
up their ifs. And for that, I say fuck you
to all of you, because that's not what you're there for.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, look, take a look at who these
maga Republicans promote from within themselves. Right, we cannot love
Mike Turner, who chair the Intelligence Committee in the House
of Representatives, Right, Like, we can disagree with that, But
the guy's been a member of Congress since two thousand
and three. He worked up the ranks, relatively bipartisan guy,
very outspoken in favor of Ukraine and NATO, someone who,
while you disagree with vehemently, He's from Ohio's tenth congressional district,
would used to be their third you at least go okay,
like he can do the job. Right, So Trump gets
rid of this guy, and who does Maga Mike Johnson
replace him with an Arkansas Republican congress member by the
name of Rick Crawford, who in twenty twenty one said this,
let's planned.
Speaker 12: Look, we need to we need to understand. I believe
that the covid virus is real. However, I don't know
that it's any worse than the common cold, and we
somehow managed to get through the common cold. As we
develop over time, vaccinations and herd immunity and things of
this nature. I'm not downplaying the severity of the pandemic,
but we have to learn to live with it. While
I have you have you here, I do want to
move on to infrastructure, because.
Speaker 1: Right, that clip is from an asshole.
Speaker 2: By the way, what an asshole? Yeah? You know what,
We could say the same thing about polio. Yeah, you
could learn to live with it, right, or you know,
the chicken chicken pox, or shingles or measles, Mump's rebella,
you know, and any of the other dip theory. We
could learn to live with it. It's so it's common. Well,
eventually get a hurt immunity. Sure, you will all right again,
they're all just playing ben to the to the script
that's given to them. And that's how Donald Trump won
the election. And that's where Democrats were fractured, all going
off on different tangents.
Speaker 1: Look that clip too that I showed you is from
twenty twenty one. It was when people knew that the
deaths that were caused by COVID. He's still saying that.
And so let's be clear, Like, if you're willing to
have Pete Hegsith be your Secretary of Defense, if you're
willing to have Rick Crawford lead the Intelligence Committee and
have Donald Trump be your leader and be the president,
if you're okay with that, then you're really then there's
really no doubt to the depravity you'll go anywhere. There's
frankly nothing that you will not be okay with once
you've opened the Pandora's box right there. And our founders,
I think believed that in our two party system, the
systems themselves would safeguard that kind of like it does
in parliamentary systems, where you usually not all the time,
but you usually can't become the leader of your party
in a parliamentary system unless you've worked your way up
from the ground up through the party, you show you
can work with other people. And then in a multi
party system you usually have to make alliances with other
parties that you may disagree with. But here our system,
and I know people go. Our founders were so brilliant,
The constitution was so brilliant, I think that it could
be except it relies on good faith. And historically, while
these norms and traditions were exercised in good faith, not
all the time. Let's be very clear that dark times
the arc moving in the right direction. But the good
faith aspect of these norms that held it together, that
they've been shattered, and they've been shattered by the people
that you're seeing there.
Speaker 2: And and come on.
Speaker 1: What, why is it a political issue to say COVID
is dangerous and deadly, Like that's so strange to me,
Like that's not a political issue. What the hell are
you even talking about?
Speaker 2: It is a political issue because Trump made it a
political issue exactly to be wrong. So when he turned
around and said it'll be gone by the end of
the weekend, ignore it, and so on, and then more on,
Mike Tense got up there and did the same at
Sea pack that's why.
Speaker 1: Exactly, you know, and it's the same people. Never before
would you politicize a tragedy like a like hurricane wins
that spread fire, like you would never turn the tragedy
that we've experienced here in LA into a political issue
and right away start lying about the cause of it
to undermine democrats like that just never was a thing.
You know, we wouldn't be Like when there was a
hurricane in Florida. You know, oh, this is the the
hurricane is being caused by Deysantis. The hurricane is being
caused like that, That's just not what you do. You
you rally to the people, you don't spread lies about it.
But now, no matter what it is, right the hurricanes
in the East Coast, the lie was Biden's only giving
seven hundred and fifty dollars. By the way, they use
the same one here, Bema's only giving seven to fifty.
Speaker 2: That's just it's just falls it's the same seven fifty
that they claim that giving all the migrants too. It's
it's it's you know.
Speaker 1: And by the way, Davin Newsom, who I think is
built for this moment to debunk disinformation, right, younger guy
quick on his feet, good looking, kind of made for
the articulate, made for the moment. It took him like
four or five days to realize the hustle. And frankly Biden,
because Biden's an old school guy who was into norms
and let's work together. And Biden just was unable to
swat down the lies because it just wasn't it wasn't
in his fabric in DNA as as as as the
leader that he is. And I think it's unfortunate because
I think his leadership is what's needed. But you know,
you need the TikTok presidency, you need the you know,
that's where we are, and so we have to recognize that.
You gotta deal with that. You can't ignore that. But
we're gonna work here on political Beatdown on the Midas
Touch Network to get out the truth each and every day.
It's why we keep on growing. We're over We're getting
close to four million subscribers on this channel, So make
sure you hit subscribe.
Speaker 2: Do me a favor.
Speaker 1: Check out the Maya Culpa podcast. Search Maya Culpa wherever
you get your audio podcasts. When you see the blue
Maya Culpa pod, download that one. Subscribe to that one,
not the red one. Also check out at the Michael
Cohen Show YouTube channel. It's free. Just search Michael Cohen
Show and make sure you turn the notifications on there.
Turn the notifications on here. It's free to do that
so you get alerted when there are new videos as well,
and then Patreon dot com slash political Beatdown helps. Next week,
Cohen and I will do another live meeting. We'll announce
when it's gonna be. We're excited to meet with all
of you. So thank you Midas Mighty, Thank you Beatdown Brigaders.
We appreciate you, we're grateful for you good audience today,
and we'll see you next time. Shout out to the
Midas Mighty and shout out Brigators