Speaker 1: Welcome to Political beat Down. I've been my cellas joined
by Michael Cohen. For those who are joining from the
live coverage I just did with Karen Friedman Magnifilo on
everything that's happening in the criminal trial against Donald Trump.
Speaker 2: Welcome.
Speaker 1: For those who are joining in the regular hour for
Political Beatdown, Welcome. We've got a lot to discuss, Michael Cohen.
The first thing I want to discuss, though, is a
statement that you put out. It's gone viral, and I
want you to be able to speak to the Beatdown brigaders.
You know about your thinking here. You and I are
going to have a lot of coverage about a lot
of things, and on political Beatdown. You know, you and
I have always talked about, you know, respect for justice
Mersham's courtroom, and of course always is kind of you know,
making sure that we are at all times just being
very cautious. You know, there's an active proceeding taking place,
and of course with our best it's hard when people attacked.
I'll just leave it, leave it at that, to just
hold back sometime. But this is a statement that you
put out, Michael Cohen, let me read it to everybody
and let me get your.
Speaker 2: Take on it.
Speaker 1: You said, despite not being the gag defendant, out of
respect for Judge Marshan and the prosecutors, I will cease
posting anything about Donald on my ex formerly Twitter account
or on the Maya Culpa podcasts until after my trial testimony.
See you all in a month or more hashtag Team
Cohen and we're here on Political Beatdown that still applies
to Political beat Down all of your podcast on the
Midas Touch Network. You and I are going to be
able to discuss, you know, other issues. There may be
times where you know, I will be discussing something and
if I do, it's not for you know, you'll know
I'm not going. I mean, I need to update people
on some basic news of what of things that are
happening as a journalist, but I want to hear from
you about your decision to make this statement and if
you could address the brigaders.
Speaker 2: So what ended up happening is all of a sudden,
you have this gag order that was placed on Trump
that was being violated, and they were in court and
they're making the statements that he being meaning Donald being
the front runner for or the presumptive nominee for the
Republican Party that he has the right within which to
respond to attacks and all of this other stuff, and
truth be told, what it was doing is it was
interfering with the progression of the trial, something that I
would like to see over with as soon as possible,
because that means I am done. It means that I
am free from all of the testimony after six plus years.
And so I decided to make a decision because his
attorneys Todd Blanche came in and showed a tweet that
I had put out, or a post that I had
put out that is critical of Donald that I had
put out in retaliation for his acts against me. But
whatever it might be, I just decided that I will
not talk about him anymore until after the trial, till
after my testimony, plain and simple. So everything that you
saw as they just posted is what I put out.
That there are many other things this one right here.
I am not the gig the defendant. But out of
respect to Gudge Mrshan, because this is just extra work
that he has to deal with as well as the prosecutors,
that I will cease posting on my social media platforms
or discussing Donald. And you know, during those time periods,
for example, where Ben you know, wants to get into
a topic that my estimation is let's just say, teetering
even on this specific area. I'm just gonna stop my camera.
I'm gonna mute it, and I don't want to be involved,
And just as soon as it's over, then I will
have Salty bring me back into the picture, because I
really want to live up to what promised that I made.
You know, I am tired of Maga's attacks on me
every time that there would be a comment made about me.
On top of that, it's not helpful to other witnesses
because many of them are feeling the same heat that
I was feeling from those comments, and I appreciate that.
A lot of people saying, you know, classic move, it's
I don't want to say it's a classic move. I'm
saying it's a respectful move. It's a respectful move of
the system of Judge Murshan, of his courtroom and the
prosecutors who are you know right now working hard to
put forth their case. On top of that, to be
honest with you, it's also it's a benefit to Trump's
defense team because they don't have to waste time now
putting forth motion after motion after motion. But we'll see
what happens with this gag order. Because even after I
had put that out, you know, more stuff had come out,
and I know that today even more what do you
call it, another motion? Three more violations under the gag order.
I wish that it would stop. Even if it doesn't,
I'm going to allow the prosecutors and the court to
deal with Trump and I'm going to sit back and
let the process run itself out despite the fact that
I am not the defendant in this case. He is.
I am not the gagged individual in this case he is.
But nevertheless, again I'm gonna I'm going to live up
to my word.
Speaker 1: When I appreciate that you say time and time again,
is I respect this system. I respect law and order.
I recognize this justice system and its importance. And even
if not under an obligation under any type of gag order,
I have such respect for this system in place that
I don't want to be even view or construed in
any way as giving an excuse to others who may
not have the same view and reverence about the system.
And so here's what I'm going to do. You and
I can talk about. There's a lot going on. There's
a lot of things that the RNC is doing. There's
a lot of things going on on Capitol Hill. There's
a lot that I can talk about, Like when I
talk about what went down at the Supreme Court oral
argument today, I'm frankly just going to be playing some
of the audio clips of what the lawyers were arguing.
And Cohen, if that's something that you want to you
think you need to mute yourself for while, I just
play it.
Speaker 2: If I do, then I'm going to because one of
the other things that I have not been doing is
I'm not following the trial. Now. You know, there are
times as I'm flipping through, I'll see it's about the
hush money. I'll go back to, like, you know, forty
eight hours, you know, the crime Show, or Neighborhood Wars,
a Customer War, or I'll flip. I was started to
watch Showgun. Rosie O'Donnell the other night on my TikTok
show jumped on with me and she was recommended Showgun.
I have to be honest, I love Rosie to death,
but I hate subtitles. Right. I just wanna I want
to I want stupid TV I don't want the ones
where I have to pay attention and I have to
start reading. You know, the subtitles. I wish they would have.
I wish they would have dubbed it, but this one
is not. I checked a see if it was dubbed.
Speaker 1: Well, Cohen, you are a voracious reader, and you have
a stack of books that you're reading, all kind of
at the same time. For those who were able to
make our zoom meeting yesterday at patreon dot com slash
Political Beatdown, we kept it very light and you were
We were asking you, well, look what are you doing
right now to relax and de stress? And you talked
about reading books. You also talked about some of your
other hobbies on your phones and stuff of the games
that you play. I just think, you know, a lot
of people know what's going on in the trial. They've
heard your name being mentioned a lot. I also just
I don't want to talk specifically about the trial. I
understand the boundaries, but I also want to let people know, like, Okay,
who is Michael Cohen? Like, which is what are you
doing on a day to day phase?
Speaker 2: So maybe you can in the comments to talking about
you know, my obsession. I am OCD right, I have
been since childhood. Somebody told me a while back that
Candy Crush is kind of like meditation. I mean, I
was like, really, all right, you know, I'll try it.
It's not like, you know, I can't meditate, it's I
find it too boring. I a couple of friends when
I was in Otisville. They used to meditate all the time.
They'd sit on the floor and they would just meditate.
I couldn't get into it. I just can't bring myself
to that point. And so I was like, all right, shit,
I'll give it. I'll give anything a shot, right, So
I went ahead and I, uh, you know, I started
playing Candy Crush. Well, fifteen thousand, two hundred some odd
levels later, I think I'm like top five in the
world in terms of Candy Crush. You know. In fact,
you wanted something really funny, Ben, somebody said to me
that you can actually sell your account. I'm like, who
in the world wants not? There are people that want
to buy your level. So I said, well, you get
me that right number, and I'm willing to start all
over again because you know, it is so crazy. Yeah,
It's like now, I just I'm just sitting there and
you know, I'm just playing it and matching the whole
thing and just going on. And as I'll say, sometimes,
well even while I'm eating breakfast, I'll just sit there
and just fumble through because it takes my mind off
of everything else. Instead of watching morning television, I'll just
flip through something, or I'll go watch TikTok, or I'll
watch one of you know, legal af I watch the
Midas Brothers, you know, just something to keep myself busy.
I know that sounds crazy. I can't wait for this
trial to be over so that I don't have to
sit there and worry about whether or not I'm watching
something that I shouldn't be watching. And in all fairness too,
you know, I'm not just interested in watching to see,
you know, who's on first, what's on second, I don't
know third base. I'm not interested in just that. You know,
I was very interested in watching what's going on with
the pro Palestinian protests at the various schools you know, Yale, Brown, Vanderbilt,
University of Pennsylvania NYU, you know, et cetera. Usc I'm
interested in it because it's important to me and I
think it's important to the country to see what's going on,
and so I'll watch that. You know, I won't watch it,
for example, on CNN, because CNN has often the right corner.
You know, they're doing like a second by second playbook
of what's going on on the in the trial. So
I'll go to another station like Spectrum one, or I'll
watch it on MSNBC where they're not doing that. Personally,
I have to think it's a it's a brilliant idea.
If I was allowed to watch, I'd be very interested
in real time seeing what's happening. But you know, I'm
staying away now. I got to be straightforward and honest
and truthful here. I can't say that one hundred percent
that I have been able to stay away. Where I will,
you know, flip through and then I'll see myself and
it'll say something in the chiron like here Michael Conan
Ben myself has react to breaking news. It'll say something there,
But I am not. I'm trying to really stay away.
First of all, I don't want it to raise my
blood pressure. I also don't want to end up being
you know, asked, Hey, you know, did you follow this trial?
The answer is no, and if they ask me, you sure, Yeah,
I am sure. And you know why I didn't follow
it because I don't give a shit. I know my testimony.
And if everybody's testimony doesn't corroborate what I've been saying
now for six years, they're they're lying, They're wrong. Now
I'm not saying that. You know, I may have you know,
said you know two people, there's three people or one
person for or whatever the number might be. You know,
it could be the fifteenth or sixteenth whatever I could
be wrong on a specific data took place so long ago.
But the story that I've been telling for the last
six years, if their's doesn't corroborate mine, means it means
nothing to me, means that I really should start writing
another book.
Speaker 1: Cohen, what kind of headspace are you in right now?
How just how are you feeling? How are you doing?
We know you've lost a tremendous amount of weight. It's
good to hear your finding activities to destress a little bit,
whether it's candy crush or or we'll eat.
Speaker 2: In Central Park or just walking in Manhattan. Like you know, yesterday,
say it was a little bit colder, I walked Central Park, yesterday,
I did about four point eight miles, you know, walked
around the loop and it was beautiful out yesterday. I
put my earbugs in, I turned on you know, top
you know, top one hundred pop songs, and I just
I just enjoyed the fresh air, the sun beating down
on my face, you know, as you're walking. You know,
sometimes people you know will stop you. Most of them,
you know, for the for the you know, the vast
majority are fans, and they just want to say hi
or take a selfie. You know. Every now and then
you get the few in the park that want to
give you the finger. They curse you out as they're
running past you. I just kind of try to ignore it.
But just walking the park and looking at like, you know,
the the cherry blossoms or you know, the you know,
the just the beautiful you know greenery of Central Park,
the statue you know, the statues, the sculptures that are there,
just the people running around. You know, I'm always amazed
at how fast some of these people can actually run.
You know, It's never been my thing, you know, but
I'm always amazed that these people, you know, are able
to So I walked like four point eight miles. Today,
I had to spend some time over at my lawyer,
Donie Perry's office. Uh, and that's where I was up
until about an hour or so ago.
Speaker 1: Well, it's great to be here with you live. One
of the things you and I talked about at patreon
dot com slash political beat down during the Zoom meeting.
It was actually suggested Buyer Brigador is launching like a
book club, or like even like a health and wellness
type of club where we can all encourage each other
to like just be better and to read books and
to eat better and to do all of those things
just to help our stamina. I mean, look, these are
no matter where you are right now in the country
or in the world, these are some stressful times. And
I love that idea of maybe starting like a club
that we can do for free and have people join
and encourage like a lot of positive habits. And so
you and I are talking offline about what we can
do because we're all in this together, and we all
slip from time to time, and so it would be
great to encourage each other and make sure we're all
there for each other. I love that idea.
Speaker 2: You know. Funny though, a lot of people, A lot
of people truly started after that tweet or you know,
that post went out on x and so when they
started running it on all social media, a lot of
people started sending me text messages and emails and stuff
like that. You know, good move, you know, thank you
for caring more about America democracy, the future and the
legitimacy of this trial than you know than your own ego,
so to speak. And I really appreciate it that. Then
there's a lot of people that say, no, don't do it,
you know, uh, you know, keep talking out because we
need to know what's going on. And I apologize to
those people. I really do that. I can't be that
person who's going to, you know, provide you with my
analysis of what's transpiring obviously at this point because I
don't know. But I can't do it because again and
I say this truly out of respect really for the judge.
This is not an easy case for any judge. You know,
even though you know Marshan so far, you know from
you know, everything that I'm seeing, you know, is keeping
control over this court, you know. And again, as I'm
flipping through the channels because I want to see the
things like the pro Palestinian you know, protests. I want
to see what's happening with the ninety five billion dollars
of aid that's going to be going to rush to Ukraine,
to Israel and to Taiwan. I want to see, you know,
the other things that are happening right now, including what's
going on with Maga Mike Johnson. I was very interested
in watching his speech before Columbia University, and you know,
as you all know, I am not a fan of
Maga mic On my podcast, Maya Kulpa, I am exceptionally
critical of him, not just as the speaker, but also
on top of that, as a human being. I fundamentally
disagree with his stands on women's rights, on reproductive decision making,
on IVF, I fundamentally disagree with him. But I do
have to give the guy props. He really put himself
out there, and I can tell you yet he's getting
a lot of backlash, you know, for it, A lot Cohen.
Speaker 1: A lot of what we talk about, too is about normalcy,
about getting back to normal, about reaching across the aisle
once again, finding compromises, trying to make our political system work.
One of the reasons our show is called political beatdown.
Is it's like a beatdown on the divisiveness of politics.
And you're this team and you're that team, and it's
about can we just get back to normal again? Can
we be compassionate again? Can we all agree how important
our democracy is? Can we talk about the threats to
our democracy? Can we be clear eyed about this? And
so I don't think this is an area code that
that you have to refrain from, but if it is,
you know, let me know, because I want to talk
about the r n C right now, which is led
by which is led by l which is led by
Lara Trump, you know, not not the other guy. It's
led by Lara Trump. And she's continuing to make these
media appearances that are just so unbecoming of someone in
a position of leadership, regardless of what political party you're
involved in. So she keeps doing these shows with a
guy by the name of Alex Stein, who's like the
right wing Magatroll, who's now one of their top media
influencer type people. Right, So, if you're wondering, okay, on
the one hand, in the pro democracy community, we've got
networks like the Midas Touch and others like what's going
on in kind of the maga world. Where are they
getting their news from? Well, one of the most popular
podcasters who Lara Trump frequently appears on his show as
someone named Alex Stein. We've talked about him on a
prior show. And Alex Stein, while Lara Trump was on
one of the other shows, and I'll show you what
went down recently, was given a baby doll while Lara
Trump was there for reasons that are just entirely unclear.
And he would take this baby doll while Lara Trump
is there and laughing at it during an interview about
important issues in our there should be about issues in
our country.
Speaker 2: It wasn't.
Speaker 1: It was about taking this baby doll. And they would
repeatedly kick it. And they would keep on beating a
baby doll over and over again. Then he would punt
the baby doll and say, I want to be able
to kick baby dolls again. President Biden doesn't let me
kick bails go back to the days where I could
kick him. Then he took the baby doll and burned it,
burned the baby doll's head. Now the chair of the
RNC is Lara Trump. She's sitting there as this man
is punting and kicking the baby doll and burning the
baby doll's head. This is not normal behavior. There's a
report that The New York Times doesn't want to give
favorable coverage to President Biden because they're I don't know,
they're jealous that President Biden is not is giving interviews
with other outlets, or he's not giving them the access
that they want, so they're retaliating against him. But they
constantly both sides these things. And that's not normal conservativism.
That's not like normal Republican stuff. It's just weird and
dangerous and strange. And Lara Trump is co signing it.
She keeps going back on this guy's show and in
this appearance that our researchers were able to find, well,
let me show you this. This is part of an
interview with Alex Stein in the chair of the RNC
Lara Trump. We'll just played this first clip. It doesn't
matter which one we play, guys, but just play clip
number one of the recent interview with Stein and Lara Trump,
the chair of the r and C.
Speaker 3: It's just it's so disgraceful. Play this clip.
Speaker 4: I asked her if it was okay if you're married
to have anal sex and that was.
Speaker 2: A big deal. I asked that.
Speaker 4: I asked that because I said, is that legal? And
I would never I just want to say, Lord, I
would never ask you a discussion question like I never.
Speaker 2: Asked me something like.
Speaker 4: I would never, Lord, I would never say anything like that.
This is a free speech if you have you know,
if you want to say, if you wanted to give your.
Speaker 2: Opinion on it, you're welcome. But I'm not.
Speaker 1: I would never ask you anything about that.
Speaker 2: Hold on, I have a question. Is it legal to
do Yeah?
Speaker 4: Well, you know they say sodomy's illegal. Now yeah in
the Bible. Is it legal in the Bible to do that?
Like with your husband?
Speaker 2: Of course.
Speaker 5: I mean, as far as I'm concerned, once you were married,
everything is legal and everything that everyone enjoys, whatever it
may be.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I love you.
Speaker 2: See your said you can sport. Everything's legal.
Speaker 4: So my wife and her boyfriend, whatever they do, it's
totally legal.
Speaker 2: There is. You can't make this ship up. I mean,
this guy is absolutely first of all, you know, not
a fan of laras. However, under no circumstance, even on
as crude as I can be and as sometimes you know,
I say things that I probably shouldn't say. I have
never crossed over a line asking a woman something as ridiculous, stupid, sick,
perverted as that. I mean, it's like, you know, I'll
make up names, I will say, you know, I swear,
according to my mom, you know, a lot more than
I probably should, considering a group in a house that
there was no you know, no swear words allowed. I
mean dad being a you know, retired now headed next surgeon,
my mom's surgical nurse. My three siblings also lawyers. I
am like the only one that actually uses sort of
you know, this type of language. How I don't know.
Maybe they dropped me on my head when I was
a kid, but never in my life have I asked
somebody a question like this. I mean, it's it's his
behavior is repugnant. And the way he goes about even
told me, hey, I love you, I love you. What
the hell is that about? I mean, he's like an
eleven year old. I don't I don't understand. It's like, yeah,
we just got a playboy, yet hey him hurt by voice.
Speaker 1: Now, well here's another one from that same interview, and
she's just kind of sitting there.
Speaker 3: And this is not believable.
Speaker 1: She's the chair of the r n C in the
United States of America. She is a leader, the leader
one of the major American political parties.
Speaker 2: Do you think that, Ben, Ben, do you think that
this asked clown would turn around and ask that question
to Rona Romney McDaniel, Or do you think that's simply
because she's a Trump It's almost like, you know, there's
no holds barred here, because I don't think he would
ever ask Rona Romney McDaniel that question. Or how about
the previous chair of the RNC, Michael Steele. Do you
think he'd ever asked Michael Steele a question like that?
Speaker 1: The whole framework of what conservative media is today was
never like that with Michael Steele. Frankly, it was never
like that. In the early days of Romney McDaniel.
Speaker 3: It was not.
Speaker 1: It's become this it's baffling in one of the things
that you know, you, you and I do here at
this show. I'm sure a lot of people haven't seen that.
Now you can say why are you showing that to us,
Ben and Michael, like why do we need aren't you
giving them attention? The problem is that outside of this,
people are normalizing and acting like this is normal stuff.
In twenty twenty four. You've got more than you've got liberals,
and it isn't. So I have to share this because
you're not seeing this stuff anywhere else.
Speaker 3: So you know.
Speaker 1: What type of moral character these people have, and this
is what they're going about every day. Now here's another
clip from that interview. Let's play this other clip. You're
the best.
Speaker 4: We love having Before you Go. I need a two
box producer because I want to show you this. So
now there's Dylan mulvaney, Lord Before you Go is now
the sponsor of bud Light, And so we're gonna do
a little test. I'm going to take a sip of
this bud Light and we're going to see if it
turns to me gay. Are you ready?
Speaker 2: See?
Speaker 3: Bye?
Speaker 1: Laura, you're a great guest.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I'm gay, Laura. Oh my god, I
love it. I don't notice a difference.
Speaker 5: Nike Sports bra as well.
Speaker 4: I am one of my Nike Sports bras right here.
Speaker 2: There's something So by the way, I so appreciate Ben,
you're bringing up the point as to why is it
that we're showing you this disgusting, crude, despicable, homophobic, you know,
sort of sexually perverted clips of Laura Trump with this
idiot Stein. And the reason is because that's what the
Republican Party has become. And just imagine, just imagine that
Laura Trump will actually be a part of an administration
if I forbid a million times that Donald should win,
that these are the people that will be at the
helm of power for the greatest country in the history
of this earth. Seriously talking about that. First of all,
let me be clear about something as well. Lara and
Eric are friends with many people who are gay. And
the fact that she's laughing about him making fun of
drinking a beer, a Budweiser, because I remember they put
something on the on the can that caused you know,
some mass I forget who it was, but they put
it on the outside of the can, uh, and it
caused a whole uproar that Anheuser Bush was now losing
sponsors in and Americans or whatever. It was the fact
that she could laugh at that. You see, if I
would have I'd have a moniker of respect for her.
If she would have turned around and say, you know what,
that's really wrong to do. And to say, and I
really don't want to be a part of that. All right,
that's not that's not proper. You know, there's an amount
of respect that you give to everybody, whether you're straight
or you're gay, whether you're black, you're white, you're brown, woman,
you're male, a female, tall, short, you know, whatever, you know, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu,
it makes no difference. There's an amount of respect that
as the head of one of the two major political
parties that you owe to the people that are watching.
It's it's despicable. I'm with you on that, Ben, I'm with.
Speaker 3: You, you know.
Speaker 1: And then I'll just show this final one and you know,
it's it's like reality TV. They have to film themselves
doing everything and then they have to like post about it.
And so Alena Habba made a video that she directed
at our editor in chief at the Midas Touch Network,
Ron philip Kowski, of herself cutting in avocado and she's like, hey, Ron,
you want to watch me cut this avocado? And then
she made a video of herself and she and she
posts this video and sends it to our editor in chief,
Ron philip Kowski, and it's.
Speaker 3: Like, why are you, Like, why just just don't.
Speaker 1: You don't need to do that, like, why are we
why are they behaving like this?
Speaker 2: Here?
Speaker 3: Let me just show you this clip really quickly.
Speaker 6: Hey guys, I've never done a video like this, so
I thought I would try because ron Philipowski is getting
like a million views from.
Speaker 7: Me chopping salary. This is me eating avocado. Happy passover everybody. Hey,
ron Ylo Trollski, Well I'm not going to either.
Speaker 1: Oops, your life is bad reality TV. And these are
people who actually hold important positions, and all I want
to raise the red.
Speaker 2: Flag Cohen wouldn't put her on the Housewives.
Speaker 1: Is just to say enough enough, this is not normal.
When you and I talk a little bit about some
of the debate that was happening on the house floor,
you had George Santos replaced by Democratic congress Member Tom Swazi,
and there was a moment where Maga Republican Chip Roy
was like yelling at Swazi and was like, well, and
Swazi's like, not working anymore. We're going to act like
adults here, and chip Roy was like and Swazi was like, yes,
still not working. We're going to support our allies. Okay,
not working, And you just have to stand up to
this weirdness and this craziness and this maga mush and
this mess, and we just have to say enough. Let's
get back where we can agree to disagree on things respectfully,
where we can act with decency, where we care about
our democracy, where we the people truly follow the constitution.
We still got a lot.
Speaker 3: To talk about. Let's take a quick break.
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Speaker 1: We're back live Cohen. When we left, we were just
talking about normalcy and bringing normalcy back into our body
politique and just into our day to day life. There
was a recent add out by a group it's called
doom Scroll, and that was basically in the ad, you know,
people were on their phones and they were doom scrolling
and then the phone was you know, taken away, and
then it was like, just just go out and do
something with people, Like let's just go out and be
you know, and and just be normal and make connections again,
you know. And one of the most important things to
you and I about this beat down community, about the
Midas Touch network, is we always emphasize the importance of
the community here, right and and doing positive things for
each other and uplifting each other and rejecting the nastiness.
And that's always something we talk about over and over
again here. And by the way, the reason I just
show those clips is not to give them more attention. Again,
it's to let you know that we're not in normal
times and to call it out so we can get
back to being normal.
Speaker 3: That's why we do it.
Speaker 2: Hey, Ben, you know, it's funny. One of our brigaders
turned around and said, you know, can you do some
voiceovers for Disney? You know, and so I don't know
if you ever saw this, but Jimmy Kimmel actually took
my voice from one of my May Occult podcasts and
he put it on Snagglepuss and maybe maybe on Tuesday
when we you know, when we revisit it, we'll find
it and we'll have salty unless Sulty can do it. Now,
it's it's Snagglepus. It's like a ten fifteen seconder. It
is so freaking funny, you know. I he's like, you know,
Michael Cohen is a very distinct voice. It's kind of
schwartz and esque. That's Jimmy Kimmel. It was absolutely fantastic.
But I appreciate that. I'll tell you what else I
do appreciate. I love the fact that our brigaders come
to you know, our our defense. You know, they realize
the injustices that are constantly being put out there, and
they're constantly, you know, as a community, protecting the community
and our right to have you know, to have our
it's not opinion, to have our right to speak truth
to power. And that's something that's being lost right now
on the Republican side. They're just speaking their opinion, they're
speaking their message. They're not speaking truth. And that's why
you see nonsense like what's coming out of Laura's mouth
and so on. Look, you know, as far as the
Alina Haba video and so on. You know, I don't
know what's going through her head or anybody else's head
that's going to go ahead and attack Ron Philipowski, you know,
because a video out there it actually diminishes her as
forgetting about as a lawyer, but almost as like anybody
that you could take serious and with all of the
stupidity that you know, she says, and I'm the first
one to say it, but I don't want to start
getting down into the mud anymore with any of them,
where we are all so much above the really denigrating
sort of comments that were made about her and that video.
It's beneath us. As we now spend the next six
and a half or so months before the election. This
is time really for us to get to get serious. Right.
We have to ignore the noise that they're trying to produce.
We need to get really serious, and we need to
ensure that every single one of us are registered to vote,
because they're going to try to make it harder that
we know. We need to make sure we're registered to vote.
Make sure that everybody we know is registered to vote.
That's at work, family, friends, neighbors. You're out of the barbecue,
just walk over to somebody saying, you know what, I'm
not asking you who are you going to vote for?
But are you registered to vote? Are you going to vote? Hey,
why don't we all go together? That way we can
make sure Because my big concern for this upcoming election
is not that Biden doesn't have it hands down, simply
off of the overturning of Roe via the Dobs to see.
I believe women sixty five to seventy percent of women
in this country, Republican, Democrat and Independent, cannot stand Donald
Trump for taking the making the statements that he makes
that he takes credit for the overturning of a fifty
year decision. Starry decisive. It is the dumbest move anybody
can make. And as a Democrat, as a lifelong Democrat,
I am so thankful to the stupidity of the RNC,
the stupidity of Donald and the King to you know,
taking credit for the overturning of Dobbs. Good good, Now
you'll see the blue wave. My biggest fear is apathy.
And that's something that I hear too many people talking
about the apathy of voters, of going and even caring
who wins. They're unhappy with Trump, They're unhappy with Biden.
You know, they're certainly not voting for RFK Junior, that's
for sure. And so my that's my biggest fear. So
if each and every one of us get out, gets
out there, and we speak to our friends, our family,
our community right that we live in and make sure
that they are registered to vote, and make sure that
they actually get to the polls, there won't even be
a contest. This election will be over, you know, before
eleven o'clock at night.
Speaker 1: Well, let me shock your conscious and potential apathy by
showing you a few of these clips over the past
few days. As Marjorie Taylor Green is saying, that Maga
voters are so angry at Maga Mike Johnson and feel
so betrayed that she is worried that many of them
won't show up to vote in November.
Speaker 3: Let's play this clip firste.
Speaker 8: This is different. They're angry on a whole other level.
And here's what really worries me.
Speaker 1: They're done with the Republican Party.
Speaker 8: They are absolutely done with Republican leadership. Like my Johnson,
who totally sold us out to the Democrats, was joined
the UNI Party faster than anyone we've ever seen in
history and literally made a night and day change in
a matter of months. Betrayed everyone, betrayed the entire Republican Party,
betrayed Republican voters, betrayed the Republican Conference and voters. Voters
are so angry this time. But I'm really worried. I
am really worried. They're so angry they're not going to
give us the majority back in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: Here's another clip right here of her saying that Maga
Mike Johnson's speakership is over. He's done, We're getting rid
of him. Play this, Mike Johnson's speakership is over.
Speaker 8: He needs to do the right thing to resign and
allow us to move forward in a controlled process.
Speaker 1: If he doesn't do so, he will be vacated.
Speaker 9: Well, with older respect, you didn't give me a plan for.
Speaker 8: The speaker's role. And again, does.
Speaker 7: This mean you are going to file that motion at
some point.
Speaker 8: It's coming regardless of what Mike Johnson decides to do.
And we have three more Republicans joining us for the
special elections coming up. Very okay, so people need to
know this can happen.
Speaker 1: And showing that this is not normal at all. This
is Republican congress Member Gonzalez right here, and here, this
is how he describes his Republican colleagues. This is a
right wing guy, a Republican congress Member Gonzales. Here's how
he describes his colleagues as scumbags. Republicans, scumbags. Play this clip.
Speaker 9: He will survive. Look, the house is a rough and
rowdy place, but Mike Johnson is going to be just fine.
I served twenty years in the military. It's my absolute
honor to be in Congress. But I serve with some
real scumbags. Look, Matt Gates, he paid miners to have
sex with them at drug parties. Bob Good endorsed my
opponent a no neo Nazi. These people used to walk
around with white hoods at night. Now they're walking around
with white hoods in the daytime.
Speaker 1: He's talking about the Republican Party, his own party.
Speaker 2: So they have because then the here's the problem. The
RNC is fractured. Think of it no different than you
take a glass, right and you know very soon you'll
be doing this at your wedding, and they tell you
to smash the glass. Each one of those pieces, the
big pieces, is representing a faction of the RNC. You
have the far right magas, you have a little more
centrist magas, you have the centrists, you have the you know,
the sort of left leaning you know, progressives, and so
there's really so many different groups in MAGA right now.
And then the Republican Party that they're actually attacking each
other for who is the most MAGA or who is
the least MAGA. It is it is the most fractured party.
And can you imagine you take a fractured party like
that and you actually put it into power. What the
hell are we thinking? What are Americans thinking? If you
really want to destroy this country? Give it to a
fractured party that can't even get along with themselves. And
right now they have what is it, a one vote
majority in the you know, in the in the House.
I'll tell you, like I've said this before on you know,
to our brigaders. Ben. If I was Mike Johnson, I
would turn around. I would meet with Chuck Schumer, I'd
meet with Hakim Jeffries, and I would say, you know what,
I've had absolutely enough of this bullshit. I've had enough.
I'm switching my party right now. I'm becoming a Democrat.
We've seen a few Democrats switch over to the Republican Party.
I'm becoming a Democrat. I want to remain as Speaker,
all right. That way, we'll have the one vote majority
and they will be out. On top of that, all
of the chairs for all of these committees that are
holding back advancing certain issues and advancing certain what do
you call investigations automatically changes one, two three. That's what
I would do. I would say, fuck them enough already.
I have to care more about America. I have to
care more about the our democracy and the democracy of
this country going forward. Then I have to care about
the party and make a deal. I think he could still.
Speaker 1: I think he could still make a deal without even
I mean, it'd be interesting if he became a Democrat,
But why not make a deal of Hey.
Speaker 2: Because I'm only going to be here.
Speaker 3: I'm only going to be here for he.
Speaker 2: Doesn't make the deal that I'm describing, then chairs which
are Republican still remain in power. I'm talking about a
complete overhaul. No longer will you have, you know, a
comber pile right the head of the House Oversight Committee,
just turn around a massive just one person leaves and
everything changes. Well.
Speaker 1: Look, I think that there are some real MAGA extremists
on some of these committees, like James Comer and Jim Jordan,
But I think you have potentially others that could be
more moderate, if not under the MAGA influence. Like I
think you could get comprehensive immigration reform done right now.
If Maga Mike grew a spine on that issue, there
would be a deal. We know why that deal was killed,
we know who killed the deal in the Republican Party.
Enough said right there, So to me, that's an important
step that we can actually take. We could actually address
the border like Democrats want to do. Democrats let James Langford,
the re publican senator from Oklahoma, and negotiate and lead
the bill. One of the most conservative senators negotiated and
led the negotiations for the immigration bill, and Democrats said,
we will agree to it.
Speaker 3: Let's do it.
Speaker 1: We need to have certain safeguards to make sure that
we're treating human beings with dignity, we need to be
making sure we're giving humanitarian aid where needed. But we're agreeing,
we want to compromise. And then the MAGA Republicans killed
that deal and then said we're killing it because we
don't want to help Democrats during an election year, is
what they said. So I think MAGA might can do that.
Let me leave you with you.
Speaker 2: Remember also during the State of the Union address when
they put the camera right onto Langford and he was
sitting there shaking his head like this, and you know,
there was a tremendous amount of jeers from that right,
you know, that right wing, the chaos calal ki uh.
And he's sitting there and it's like yeah yeah, and
he goes, yeah, Well, it is one of the most
comprehensive and it's also extremely conservative. I mean, why they
didn't do it. That's called bipartisanship, and that's the only
way that the country advances, not by doing what Republicans
are doing.
Speaker 1: Cohen, are you able to give anybody a two finger salute?
Speaker 2: Is that still? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. It's
it's got to go to two people, one for each.
I mean, it's got to go to that Stein asshole
along with Lara Trump. I just find it to be
so so grotesque. I don't even know the adjectives you know,
to describe it's. It's insane, it's grotesque, it's obnoxious, it's rude,
it's homophobic, it's it's a million different adjectives, none of
which are good. And so on. Behalf of myself and
all of those that don't believe in burning babies or
you know, or talking about drinking a beer to turn
you gay. Right, what's his name? Eric Stein? Is that
what it's? Because I want to get it right.
Speaker 1: Alex Stein?
Speaker 2: Alex Stein. I don't even give a fuck about Alex. Lara.
You deserve each other. Fuck you both more.
Speaker 1: You have it the two finger salute right there from
Michael Cohen. Cohen, let's call it a day. It's been
a great episode. And I appreciate you sharing just how
you're doing what you're up to. I think we all
respect your position. Of course, we'd all be eager to
learn more about what's going on. But I think that
I think you're making the right move. We all appreciate it.
Speaker 2: So they put me on the faster, they put me
on the stay in the FESTI I'll be able to
come back and give everybody the load down, you know,
each and every each and every day and each and
every episode that we do here, which I think is
extremely important as again we head into this election cycle.
Speaker 1: Well, Cohen, thanks for that. Thank you everybody for watching.
Cohen and I will try to do another live in
the next few weeks. I mean another zoom meeting. That is,
we'll do our lives as we always do them on
Tuesday and Thursdays. Don't worry about that.
Speaker 3: Cohen and I will still be here for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the next week, the next week or two,
I think we really.
Speaker 1: Let's do another zoom meeting. So go to patreon dot
com slash political Beatdown. You know, the last meeting we
had was great and there were so many people just
happy to see you, Cohen. A lot of people joining
for the first time. They didn't realize that if they
join the Patreon they actually get to meet you on
a zoom in kind of a pretty intimate setting. So
patreon dot com slash Political Beatdown sign up right now.
Coen and I will announce the next time we will
be holding a meet. Everybody watching, Shout out to the
Brigaders and shout out to the Midas Mighty.