Ben Meiselas: MAGA Mike CAVES As EPSTEIN FILES VOTE IS IMMINENT!!

"MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports Republican Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson caving and swearing in Democratic Congresswoman-Elect Adelita Grijavala who will become the 218th signatures on the discharge petition to release the Epstein files." 

Source:Meidas Touch with a look at the MAGA Speaker and the MAGA Don. 

From the Meidas Touch

From POLITICO: 

"Speaker Mike Johnson has scheduled Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva’s swearing-in for Wednesday around 4 p.m., right before the House votes on government funding, according to a notice from his office.

The Democrat was elected to her Arizona seat 49 days ago, but the speaker delayed her swearing-in as he kept the House out of session until after the Senate acted to end the government shutdown." 

From POLITICO

This is where The New Democrat has been on releasing the Epstein files.

8/19/2025 

"The speculation (and I'm sure it's true) is that the reason why President Trump doesn't want his Attorney General Pam Bondi, to release the Epstein files, because he knows he's all over them and it would be very embarrassing for him. Even though there's probably nothing in them that could probably incriminate him of anything relating to Jeffrey Epstein. 

But my point is, for reasons that I've already laid out, is Donald Trump literally has nothing to lose here in releasing them. He's already the most unpopular 2nd term President, at least in the television and internet age. People who dislike and hate him now, won't dislike and hate him more after those files are released to the public...

From The New Democrat

9/02/2025 

"As far as the Epstein files, it's hard to imagine a sitting U.S. President being more unpopular than Donald John Trump. He's now in Joe Biden's range as far as political unpopularity, with his low 40s and upper 30s approval rating. Releasing the Epstein files even with him all over them, couldn't hurt himself anymore than what he's already done to his own political standing. If anything, it would probably just make him seem cooler with his reality TV base and perhaps even Independents who voted for him, because they think he's a "badass" or something: 

"Yeah!!! The Donald rolls with pimps and sex traffickers!!! He's even a bigger badass than we thought" 

Or phrase that last part anyway you want."

From The New Democrat

Before someone accuses me of pretending to be a mindreader by saying that the only reason why U.S. Representative-Elect Adelita Grijalva hasn't been sworn in yet to the House, is because she's the 218th vote on Representative Tom Massie's discharge petition to get the Epstein files released... I'll go on the record right now... swear under oath, even that I'm not only not a mindreader, but I'm not pretending to be one. 

I'm not reading Speaker Mike Johnson's mind here. Also in the news: I'm not going to fly to Los Angeles from Washington, by wearing a cape and flapping my arms. But the circumstantial evidence is obvious here: 

You go to bed at night and it's completely dry and clear outside. And you wake up the next morning (unless you had a rough night) and there's snow on the ground. Now a mentally unhealthy person might say that an army of people came in and completely dumped white powder all over your yard and your neighborhood, while you were asleep. An intelligent person would say, it snowed last night. Even though they went to sleep before it started snowing. 

Speaker Mike Johnson (MAGA, Shreveport, Louisiana) has been 100% loyal to Donald Trump the whole year. Not just on policy grounds and delivering the votes to pass most of the President's agenda through the House. But also serving as the President's blocker (as they say in auto racing) by not doing any real Congressional oversight in the House and preventing embarrassing information for the President from coming out... like preventing votes on releasing the Epstein files. Which is really what I want to talk about and why that is the case. Not whether or not I'm a mindreader or not. 

What a difference just 1 election year can make. Republicans were on top of the world after the 2024 elections a year ago. They still looked like they were in good shape, even in February. But last week, Republicans (especially MAGA) got hammered everywhere in the country where there were competitive elections or referendums going on. 

After tomorrow, there will be 214 House Democrats in the 119th Congress, after Adelita Grijalva is sworn in tomorrow. Now, I'm not going to say there will be 50-60 Republicans who will vote for Representative Massie's petition. I don't know where Representative Ro Khanna and others are getting that information. But I could see 15-20. And those members who will probably be the Republicans who will probably lose reelection next year, if they run for reelection. But voting for the Massie petition could help whatever reelection chances that they have in 26, at least in the general election. 

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Ben Meiselas & Doug Jones: The Ghislaine Maxwell Meeting With DOJ

"MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on GOP Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson failing to successfully cover up Trump’s dark past during recess and Meiselas interviews former Alabama Senator and top Alabama federal prosecutor Doug Jones about his response to what is going on with Trump’s cover up and more." 

Source:Meidas Touch with a look at The MAGA Don & MAGA Mike.

From the Medias Touch

As we've been arguing at The New Democrat for 2 weeks now... this whole relationship between Trump DOJ and Ghislaine Maxwell, is only about 1 thing: trying to make Donald J. Trump look as good as possible. And seem completely innocent of having any real relationship between President Trump and Jeffrey Epstein and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell. As Fred Schneider wrote last week: 

"I think Kristy Greenberg hit a home rune (or, should I say "grand slam" since that word has something to do with both baseball and tennis and the US Open is going on right now) when she was talking about Ghislaine Maxwell and the word "inappropriate". Greenberg was talking about the interview that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche (who still seems to think that he's Donald Trump's defense lawyer) and he asked Maxwell: 

"Did you ever hear Mr. Epstein ever say or do anything that President Trump did anything inappropriate with anybody in your world?" 

And Maxwell responded with: 

"Absolutely never in any context."

So Kristy Greenberg's point here is that you don't let the defendant (or in this case convict) get to decide for you what is "inappropriate" and what is "appropriate". She's been in prison for 5 years now because she was convicted of a lot of inappropriate actions. (And based on the evidence, did some really inappropriate things) And we're not talking about serial jaywalker, (if you are a serial jaywalker, stay out of Washington and Chicago right now) or a shoplifter, who only steals because they are addicted to gum...

From The New Democrat

And as Ederik Schneider said last week as well: 

"But I think "inappropriate" is a better word here because it's clearer and gets right to the point. And when you are a sex trafficker, sex trafficking probably seems "appropriate" to you. Just like a rapist who thinks that the women that he raped, wouldn't get sexy any other way, or would never get better sex, then what they got from him, so he was just doing them a favor. Or a serial murderer who thinks that his victims deserved to die. Both the murderer and rapist would be 100% wrong, but you can be wrong without lying. 

I never met Ghislaine Maxwell or Jeffrey Epstein, (I guess God has been looking out for me in this case) and I'm not a psychologist, but I'm thinking Maxwell hates prison so much right now, it's so different from her former life and she's been able to follow the news enough in prison, she clearly knew Donald Trump before he became President and maybe she thinks she has a credible dossier about him. 

I think what Maxwell is thinking here is, that if she tells Trump.Inc everything they want to hear, including lying her head off to make The Donald look good here and risk future perjury charges against her from a different DOJ, that Trump DOJ will go easy on her and perhaps even let her out of prison well before her current release date. I think that's her play for freedom right now. And we'll see if it works or not." 

From The New Democrat

As Doug Jones said so himself, (who is a career lawyer) Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche went to Ghislaine Maxwell's former prison (before she was moved to Club Fed) in Tallahassee, Florida, on behalf of his client, (of course not the American people. Don't be silly.) President Donald Trump John Trump, to ask Maxwell some of the most leading questions that she could possibly be asked: 

"Did you ever see Donald Trump do anything inappropriate with Jeffrey Epstein? 

Was Donald Trump ever aware of Mr. Epstein's sex trafficking operation? 

How well did did Mr. Trump know Mr. Epstein? 

How well did you know Mr. Trump before he became President?" 

Those aren't the exact questions that DAG Blanche asked Maxwell, word for word. But those are the defense lawyer style questions that he asked her. 

Imagine being a prosecutor and you have you the defendant on the witness stand and that person is on trial for sex trafficking and you have all the evidence in the world that you need to convict her... but there is 1 catch: you don't ask her to explain all the evidence against her, or try to catch her in a lie, or multiple lies. What you do instead is, declare her a hostile witness and ask her defense leading questions like: 

"Do you think it's possible that the police and prosecutors just planted all this evidence against you? 

Do you think that some disguised themself as you at all those sex parties? 

Do you have an evil twin sister who was committing all these crimes and it was her doing all these things and not you?" 

Of course the defendant would answer yes to all those questions, especially if they're coming from the prosecution and the person is a serial liar and they simply believe they can get off and convince the jury that they're completely innocent. That's what Mr. Blanche was doing to her on behalf of his client Donald J. Trump. 

Go back to, I guess it was March, or early spring of 2017, Donald Trump had been President for about 2 months at that point and his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, announces that he's staying out of the Russia campaign interference investigation, because he worked for the 2016 Trump Campaign and he believed that he had a conflict of interest. And at I think a cabinet meeting or press conference, the President was asked about that and he said something to the affect: 

"The Justice Department is or should be like my own personal law firm and just represent my interests." 

Well, President Trump has that now, thanks to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the 1st and 2nd officers at DOJ. Between the 2 of them, they're responsible for running that entire department. And they're simply doing that to defend the President's interests not much more.  

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Ben Meiselas: Republican CROSS EXAM of Dem Govs BACKFIRES in HEARING

"MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on the disastrous Republican cross examination  of Democratic Governors they subpoenaed to a hearing to distract from their disastrous budget bill." 

Source:Meidas Touch with a look at U.S. Representative Marjorie T. Greene (MAGA, Georgia) & Governor Tim (please don't run for reelection) Walz (Democrat, Minnesota)

From the Meidas Touch

Just to clean up the record as far as what Ben Meiselas said and add to the record as far as what he left out, first and then I'll get into what I really want to talk about here. And hopefully I won't put too many people in a coma from reading what I have to say, first. (Ha, ha)

So these Democratic governors (Kathy Hochul, J.B. Pritzker, Tim Walz) were all in front of the House Governor Reform and Oversight Committee. All you got from Ben Meiselas was that they were testifying in front of "members of Congress", or "Congress members". But "member of Congress" or "Congress member", is a very broad term. You know, 535 members of Congress between the House and Senate and maybe 45 Congressional committees between both chambers. 

The Left likes to talk about all the time about how dumb MAGA members are when it comes to government, but if you listened to how leftists talked about our government, you would think we were in United Kingdom, India... some country that has a unicameral legislature, where the members of Congress or Parliament, only come from 1 chamber.

I mean, I learned in junior high school, if not before that, because my parents have always been pretty political, that the United States has always had a bicameral Congress, with a House of Representatives and Senate. And not only that, the Senate has always been the upper chamber. Which is 1 of the reasons why the Senate is a much harder place to get elected to, especially if it's a big, swing state, like Wisconsin, or Michigan. It's a lot harder than the House, where in most cases you probably just have to win your party's primary, to get elected to the U.S. House. But the Left talks like they don't seem to understand our form of government, while lecturing everyone else about how stupid MAGA is.

And if anyone is still awake after reading my little social studies lecture, I'll tell you what I really think about this House Oversight Committee hearing today. If not, I hope this is the best sleep that you've gotten in a long time. (Ha, ha)

So I again, talking about my generation: if you remember the 1990s, you remember the daytime, trash talk TV genre, which were all supposed daytime, syndicated talk shows. The Jerry Springer's, the Jenny Jones's, even Geraldo Rivera who was more serious than the others, but he would have segments and guests like that. 

So the show would bring on a bunch people, none of them were experts on anything, other than how to look and sound pissed off and piss other people off and they would be up there to talk about their problems and problems they're having with other people, on live, national TV. It was sort of like daytime soap opera, but in real life, where the acting was better and the shows were funnier. That's what a House MAGA committee hearing for me is... at least when the "witnesses" (who really just there for MAGA verbal target practice) are Democrats. 

So when you are a member of 1 of these Congressional committees and you are literally asking your own witness: "Are you laughing at me?" you know you are not making your point. Unless you are just there to gin up some social media views for yourself with your MAGA audience. 

I'm sure Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (MAGA, Georgia) wanted her "question time" to remembered as her telling Governor Kathy Hochul (Democrat, New York) how horrible of a person that she thinks she is. But when you interrupt yourself, to ask your own damn witness: "Are you laughing at me?" that's not the impression that you want to leave even with your own audience, or the broader audience. 

And the Nancy Mace thing: 

@Representative Nancy Mace: to Gov. Tim Walz aggressively grill Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz: "You guys are the party of violence and you're the party erasing women. You don't respect us. You' don't respect us. You're a bigot. You're a misogynist. You're a sexist."

@Kire Schneider: Nancy Mace is the party of 1... herself.

From C-SPAN

So again, MAGA is not in the business of Congressional oversight, or government oversight in general. When they do these hearings, they simply want their own base and constituents to know for damn sure, how much they hate Democrats. Not to inform anyone about what government is doing with their tax dollars, by asking real questions and getting real documents from government agencies, or from state officials, like governors. That's all we saw today. But they are very good at political "reality TV"... at least as far as entertaining the broader audience, including their own witnesses. 

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Ben Meiselas: FURIOUS World Leaders SHRED Donald Trump in NEW ORDER

"MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on world leaders calling Trump’s bluff and Trump folding as a weak and pathetic person who doesn’t have the courage to lead." 

Source:Meidas Touch with a look at a man who defends his country & a man who only defends himself. It's obvious who is who.

From the Meidas Touch

Just on a personal note first: Ben Meiselas sounds like he needs a break. He sounds like 1 of those U.S. Senators who just completed a 24 hour filibuster and instead of going home and getting some rest, he goes straight from the Senate chamber to his latest committee hearing and immediately begins speaking there. His voice sounds pretty weak in this video. 

Now on to a serious issue. Ben Meiselas might agree me with on this. Ukraine's attacks directly on Russia's Air Force and knocking out 1 of their major fleets, reminds me of when the U.S. Navy Seals assassinated Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan back in May of 2011. The White House didn't inform the Pakistani Government of what they were doing in that country either, because the Obama Administration was worried that Pakistani intelligence would leak this American operation to Osama and company. 

Well, President Volodomyr Zelensky (Ukraine) didn't give President Trump a heads up either, because guess what: Vladimir Putin would've found out about that ahead of time: 

Perhaps his Russian contact DNI Tulsi Gabbard would've give him that information. 

Maybe Secretary of Defense Pete (don't call me DUI) Hegseth would've leaked that information to The Kremlin... perhaps unintentionally. Maybe while he was drunk at 1 of his drinking parties and he leaked that information on Signal, perhaps even Twitter. You know what they say about Tweeting while drunk? You don't want to be held accountable for what you Tweet, after you had a few because you don't know what you are saying. 

And where Meiselas and I definitely agree here... this does make President Trump look pretty weak. It was the ultimate: "Screw you. I don't need you. I have my own, damn, country, to defend, with or without you".  This is what happens to you when you try to govern with just 42% of the country behind you and instead of trying to lead the free, developed world, you try to get in bed (perhaps just rhetorically) with the authoritarian world, because that personally benefits you financially.

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Ben Meiselas: Fox News PANICS On LIVE TV As Donald Trump LOSES CONTROL

"MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Fox News losing all control has Donald Trump’s idiotic behavior makes it hard for them to try and cover up with their usual tricks." 

Source:Meidas Touch with a look the DJT Party.

From the Meidas Touch

As my colleague Ederik Schneider said yesterday on The New Democrat about the modern "Republican Party": 

"So as Yaron Brook said so himself: "The Republican Party is about nothing. There's no core there, there no principles there... That's a paraphrase, but pretty close. 

If you want me to give the most justifiable defense for why I call the modern "Republican Party" the party of nothing, I'll give it to you anyway: 

"We're all about Donald Trump now, because it's the only way we can stay in power, at all. We abandon Trump, we lose our political careers and the Democratic Left would take over and do even more damage to America". 

I think that would be the most justifiable defense for why old school Republicans, people who pre-Donald Trump, we're real-life Conservative Republicans, could give for why they back Donald Trump... if not 100% of the time, certainly in the high 90s... they don't want to lose their jobs and careers and be forced to work for a living outside of the "Republican Party". 

And perhaps they're thinking: "We just weather the storm here with Trump... he'll be gone, eventually and we can just come back in and start sounding and acting like Republicans again".

From The New Democrat

I just have a few reactions here. 

Not to Laura Ingraham's credit, but just to show that there's some consistency with her career as a right-wing-populist-propagandist... back in the 1990s, when right-wing-populist radio took off in America, as a response to Bill Clinton becoming President and his Baby Boomers took over the country, that's where Laura Ingraham got her start as a right-wing-populist commentator. I guess after she was a lawyer for a brief period of time. And in her late 20s and 30s, she goes into right-wing-populist radio. So she has a fairly consistent record here, similar with Ann Coulter. 

But for those mainstream Republicans, those people who used to be about traditional values, moral values, character, defending the U.S. Constitution, the rule of law, limited government, fiscal responsibility, federalism, and our individual rights... to paraphrase Ederik Schneider: those folks are now just characters on a Seinfeld episode. I mean they're about nothing, other than themselves and keeping their careers in the Republican Party going. 

So when Donald Trump does something stupid, corrupt, looks like he's having health issues beyond just being Donald John Trump everyday, instead of the Fox News Channel covering those things, they just try to come up with another story like: 

"Remember when Joe Biden did or said this... 

Or sone media personality they don't like gives a speech about free speech and democracy being in danger in America, freakin Dana Perino (who used to be a real Republican) comes on the air and essentially calls Wake Forest graduates party animals, who just want to get through the ceremony, so they can hit the nearest bar in Winston Salem.

As Warren G. Bennis once said: Without character, there is no credibility; and without credibility, there is no trust.

That's where Fox News is right now. Everything for them is about getting the latest buck. The only people they pay attention too, are the people who are too dumb and lazy to figure out for themselves what the hell is actually going on in the world. That's the Fox News audience and that's Donald Trump's audience and party, and political reality TV show right now. 

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Ben Meiselas: Donald Trump Cabinet BREAKS Under SCORCHING Cross-Exam

"MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Democratic Senators destroying Trump Cabinet Members and top officials during a powerful cross-examination." 

Source:Medias Touch with a look at U.S. Senator Chris "I need a shave" Murphy & Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem. 

From the Medias Touch

Some of what I said about Kristi Noem last week, when she testified in front of the House Homeland Security Committee: 

"But hey, the money is good, I guess she thinks the fame is good for a her future MAGA reality TV career... reality TV stars aren't known for their intelligence and getting respect anyway, so why not embarrass yourself in front of Congress. Hell, the House and Senate, on the same day: why not?" 

From The New Democrat

From what I wrote about Kristi Nome and the other Trump officials today on Threads: 

I doubt I'm breaking any news here, but Trump officials tend to lie a lot. You can't work for DJT, if you are not willing to put your own credibility on the line for him, knowing he'll probably dump you anyway.

From Threads

As far as Kristi Noem, she plays the bimbo so well on TV, she really needs her own Hollywood produced, "reality TV" show. And maybe I'm looking too far into this, but before Donald Trump ran again for President starting 2 years ago, she didn't play the bimbo on TV. 

Pre-MAGA, Kristi Noem, was a 4 term U.S. Representative from South Dakota, she served as Governor of that state, she's an Air Force officer and veteran. She was a mainstream, center-right, business and national security oriented, Republican. More of Ronald Reagan Republican, than anything to do with Pat Buchanan or Donald Trump. 

So when I say "Kristi Noem plays the bimbo on TV", that's what I'm talking about. Her professional background indicates she's more than qualified to be Secretary of Homeland Security. But her "reality TV" career and her MAGA career from the last 2 years, where she went out-of-her-way, to not just show she loved Donald Trump, but that she didn't love him enough to be his Vice President, (and I' talking about her doggone dog story) shows she's just a MAGA, political, "reality TV" player, who is willing to play and look braindead on national TV, in order to appease Donald John Trump. 

Also from my Threads page about what I said about Secretary Noem last week: 

If you are Secretary Kristi Noem right now, I think the last place she would want to be, is in front of the U.S. Congress. (House & Senate) Democrats just have too many lawyers and too much material to throw at her. She just looks like a SNL skit right now.

From Threads

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Ben Meiselas: Republicans LOSE IT On LIVE TV Over Donald Trump DESTROYING GOP

"MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas breaks down a disastrous weekend for Republicans on the news circuit as they struggled—and failed—to defend Donald Trump’s latest wave of indefensible decisions and scandals, exposing just how broken the MAGA message machine really is." 

Source:Medias Touch with a look at U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy & U.S. Representative Michael McCaul (Republican, Texas)

From the Medias Touch

To start with Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, first: 

So I guess serving on the House Financial Services Committee (which mostly relates to banking and financial markets) doesn't automatically make you qualified to be Secretary of Transportation. Or, a FOX News talking head. Or, a wannabe MAGA reality TV star. Wait, I already knew that. 

The problems that Secretary Duffy was talking about, weren't even issues in early January and now these blackouts and lack of power at some of our largest airports, like in Newark, New Jersey, are becoming routine. I guess the Secretary can blame Elon Musk and DOGE for cuts to the Federal Aviation Administration... but President Trump created DOGE. 

What was really easy to predict as far as the self-inflicted damage because of President Trump's global trade war... the consequences were not just easy to predict, but the President retreating on that as well, and then trying to claim victory. Again, you don't need to a psychic to see any of these things happening. Just have a bit of what's very in short supply in America, (and I'm not talking about dolls) which is commonsense. I guess commonsense is also 1 of Donald Trump's trade war victims. 

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Ben Meiselas: WOW! Fox News GIVES UP On Donald Trump in SHOCKING TWIST

"MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Fox News surprisingly turning against Trump on some of their programming during the day." 

Source:Medias Touch with a look at FNC anchor Brett Baier and President Donald J. Trump (MAGA, Florida) 47th President of the United States & 1st wannabe dictator.

From the Meidas Touch

I have several reactions to this: 

On the Fox News poll: CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite delivered his own editorial arguing that there was not a military solution to ending the Vietnam War... in 1968. President Lyndon Johnson was like in the mid 30s in popularity at that point, largely because of the Vietnam War, as well as rising crime rates, American culture changing too fast for the so-called middle Americans, especially older Americans, etc. And President Johnson's reported response to the Cronkite editorial was: "When you've lost Walter Cronkite, you've lost Middle America." 

I'm not saying Fox News speaks for "Middle America". But when you are Donald Trump, the DeFacto leader of the MAGA movement and you can't even crack 50% in a Fox News poll, you are not even polling 40% on the economy, under 50% even on immigration... you know you are unpopular. That there's something rotten in The White House and it's not just Donald J. Trump (reported B.O. issues) but what they're doing now is not even working politically for them and is hurting their party in Congress as well.

The Fox News poll also suggest that the Left is simply wrong about FNC, at least to this extent: President Trump has an 86% approval rating with the Republican Party, but his overall approval is 44%, according to Fox News. Which tells us the entire Fox News audience is not just small town, blue-collar, rednecks, etc. That Democrats watch FNC, Independents, as well as mainstream Republicans, not just the populist far-right in the country. 

As far as Jesse Watters: I'm about 10 years older than Ben Meiselas and as a Gen-Xer, I remember all those Star Trek reruns from the 1980s and the films as well from that decade. Jesse Watters who is also a Gen-Xer, would get my reference, if he saw this... I think he looks like Commander Spock (played by Leonard Nimoy) from the Starship Enterprise, with the smooth black hair, thick sideburns. I would bet anything that Watters is not nearly as intelligent and even as funny as Dr. Spock. But that's who Watters reminds me of. 

If you are an Alfred Hitchcock fan, like myself, you've seen North By Northwest. Watters also looks like Leonard (played by Martin Landau) from that film. 

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Ben Meiselas: FOX News in PANIC Over Donald Trump FATAL MOVE

"MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Fox News suffering as Trump destroys the economy and the alliances of the United States." 

Source:Medias Touch with a look at DJT News Inc.

From the Meidas Touch

I'm thinking Ben Meiselas already knows this... he's certainly smart enough to know this, but there's no research or preparation that Fox News and the rest of the Trump news organization does in trying to figure out how they're going to try to spin the latest Trump scandals, or political problems. Trump news right now is basically 24 hours of Karlone Leavitt in The White House press room, or in the driveway. (When the press room is too hot because of all her hot air) And they get away with it generally, because look at their audience. 

It's not just Democrats who see MAGA as rubes, rednecks, hicks, neanderthals, dipshits, assholes, etc... Trump news and company, who are primarily Northeastern and East Coast elitist types, who all have college educations, making 7-8 figures, also sees their audience as rubes, rednecks, hicks, neanderthals, dipshits, assholes, etc. 

It's just that Democrats are honest about how they view MAGA members and their voters, while MAGA Inc. treats them as the "real Americans" who truly love America, who are not going to let annoying America values like the rule of law, due process, U.S. Constitution, stand in their way and prevent them from carrying out their mission, which is "to save America from the Un-Americans". 

Imagine someone taking an oral exam in school, but they don't even know what the questions will be on the exam, let alone have studied for it... that's what Fox News is like trying to defend Donald Trump and his people everyday: a Karoline Leavitt press briefing 24 hrs a day. They just say the first thing that comes to mind and go with it and try to figure out to explain what they said later on... unless there's another MAGA scandal or story that has just broken, that they feel the need to speak to. 

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Ben Meiselas: FOX News LOSES IT On AIR Over Donald Trump's TARIFF CATASTROPHE

"MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Fox News losing all control of its messaging over Donald Trump’s disastrous moves." 

Source:Meidas Touch with a look at Trump News & the presidential bungler.

From the Medias Touch

From FOX News: 

"Laura: Only Trump has had the ‘guts’ to end the ‘great foreign rip-off’ of America

Fox News host Laura Ingraham dispels ‘myth-perceptions’ around President Donald Trump’s economic agenda on ‘The Ingraham Angle." 

From FOX News

And from FOX News anchor Harris Faulkner: 

“Look, when this nation used to go to war, people in this country would support the war effort with their materials at home and making things for weaponry and all of that. We gotta do 100 percent buy-in over this bumpy period." 

From Yahoo News

Perhaps Harris Faulkner can explain what war is America at right now. But I wouldn't even bet a cup of coffee on that... especially with prices going up as fast as they are, thanks to President Trump's trade war. Wait, I got it: the war that Faulkner is thinking of, is the President's trade war, that he started, that he didn't have to start.

From The New Democrat talking about Laura Ingraham:

And if you are someone who just doesn't love political history, but Hollywood political history films... there's a great line from Hal Holbrook (who played Deepthroat in All The President' Men in 1976) where he's talking to Bob Woodward (played by Robert Redford) about the Watergate burglars and the people in The White House whose job was to cover up the Watergate and the Plummers mess created by President Richard Nixon and his loyalists: 

"The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand". 

The fact is The White House only speaks to 1 audience, which is their MAGA base. They feel as long as they have those small town, blue-collar, folks who think America is has been going to hell since the 1960s because of multiculturalism and everything else from that period... they'll be fine. They just have to stay in there and keep doing all the fighting and attacking the so-called elitists. And anyone who isn't rural, Anglo-Saxon male, they'll just label those folks as DEI when they stand up to this White House. 

So when you are only speaking to 1 audience and morality and honesty if anything are just obstructors to your ultimate goal which is to take over and run America, you can literally lie your asses off in public, even purger yourselves in front of Congress. Because who's going to stop them... 

From The New Democrat 

"Secretary Scott Bessent's line: "Many of the employees are fantastic. It's this consultant group. They're like a boa constrictor. They're like a python," he said. "They've constricted themselves around our government, and the costs are unbelievable. They're being passed on to the American taxpayer."

Reminds me of this expression: "The expression "you can never trust a snake" is a common idiom used to describe someone who is deceitful, untrustworthy, and potentially dangerous, often implying they are scheming or manipulative. It's rooted in the image of a snake, a creature often associated with stealth and danger." 

I'm just wondering of the Secretary is speaking from personal experience here. And perhaps cluing in Laura Ingraham's viewers about his own trustworthiness.

Which would explain Fox News host Laura Ingraham less than enthusiastic expression and response to Secretary Bessent when the Secretary compared Federal workers to snakes... 

From The New Democrat

Just when I thought Laura Ingraham was finally seeing the light (so to speak) about President Trump's trade policies and other bad decisions that they're making that don't just have bad political consequences for the country, but for the Republican Party as well, (which is really what DJT should be thinking about, because that would a problem for him) I guess someone from the "deep state" got to her and told her to shut the hell up when it comes to doing anything but treating The Donald like he's nothing but God himself. 

I take some of that back: Laura Ingraham does see the light on Donald Trump when it comes to Russia's war on Ukraine, Signal Gate, and now his trade war. It's a question of whether she has the character and his honest enough to make those views public or, not. Whether she is willing to even leak out on her own show what she thinks about these things. which is what she was doing on Signal Gate last week and her interview with Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent 2 weeks ago, where she seemed to take issue with the Secretary referring to government employees as reptiles. 

The main difference between a virtuous and a bungler, is the virtuous doesn't have to worry about what will happen to them when they screw up. They don't have to not just come up with a story, or worry about if they've already used that story before, because they're liars. The virtuous can just say: 

"I screwed up. I didn't have enough information before I decided to do this, that, and the other thing". And the people around them will probably take their word on that because they trust that person. 

The bungler doesn't have that luxury. I mean when they get caught, it's generally redhanded, like dropping their ID on their way out of the store, or smiling to the camera because they want to be famous, etc. And they get caught at the very least doing something dishonest, that they could get sued for, or just arrested for. And they have to think real fast about how to get way with what they and everyone else knows that they just did. And make sure they didn't use some old story that they haven't already used before. 

The Trump Administration, whether you are talking about DOGE, Signal Gate, and now the escalation of the President's trade war, are playing the role of the bunglers. With their propaganda operation going out-of-their-way every day and night, trying to make up excuses explaining that it's either not the President's fault for doing exactly what he did, or, will all work out in the end because The Master has some grand vision. 

What Trump News doesn't understand is Donald Trump has no more political vision than the average bat, or bird thats always crashing into buildings and homes.. He just makes precarious decisions on the fly like the drunk who thinks they're sober enough to drive themselves home, because they're always like that. And I'm not talking about planes here. Plane crashes in the Trump Administration, is a different issue. And Trump News embarrasses themselves every day and night... because it pays well for them. 

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Ben Meiselas: Fox News COLLAPSES On LIVE TV As Lies ALL BLOW UP

"MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on how Fox News is in a total panic as the Trump administration lies over its war plan leaks are getting more ridiculous and absurd by the minute." 

Source:Meidas Touch with a look at MAGA TV.

From the Meidas Touch

From FOX News themselves: 

"National Security Advisor Michael Waltz is pressed on claims from an article in 'The Atlantic' and defends the Trump administration’s foreign policy success on ‘The Ingraham Angle." 

From FOX News

And from a real news source: ABC News: 

"How did a journalist get added to a Signal group chat among top Trump officials discussing a U.S. military strike on Houthi rebels in Yemen?

That's a key question after the message chain was brought to light on Monday by The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg in an article titled: "The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans." A National Security Council spokesman told ABC News shortly after the article was published the message thread that was reported "appears to be authentic."

Goldberg said he received a connection request on the commercially available app from a user identified as White House national security adviser Michael Waltz. He recounted later being added to a chat group with a message from Waltz about it being established to coordinate about Houthis... 

From ABC News

What I'm going to talk about here really gets to my point about Laura Ingraham in this discussion. I can't believe The New Democrat is sort of speaking up for Laura Imgraham (the princess of far-right propaganda) but this is Donald Trump's America and times are very different. From The New Democrat last week: 

"Just a little background of what I think of Laura Ingraham first and then the interview: 

I think she's a right-wing, hyper-partisan demagogue, who a best is very loose with the truth. But she's not stupid or crazy. You see that just in the opening of this interview with President Trump where she said that The White House readout of the conversation between the President and President Vladimir Putin: "As a positive reading of the conversation"

And then Laura Ingraham literally asking the President when talking about Chief Justice John Roberts statement on the President attacking Federal judges because they ruled against him: "Are there any court orders that you wouldn't defy?"

Think about that: a Fox News anchor... I mean there's no one more MAGA than Laura Ingraham. Her right-wing populist record, goes back to the 1990s, if not father. She's a saner, more intelligent version of Ann Coulter. And she's asking the Dear Leader of the MAGA movement (who also just happens to also be President of the United States) "Are there any court orders that you would defy... 

From The New Democrat

"Secretary Scott Bessent's line: "Many of the employees are fantastic. It's this consultant group. They're like a boa constrictor. They're like a python," he said. "They've constricted themselves around our government, and the costs are unbelievable. They're being passed on to the American taxpayer."

Reminds me of this expression: "The expression "you can never trust a snake" is a common idiom used to describe someone who is deceitful, untrustworthy, and potentially dangerous, often implying they are scheming or manipulative. It's rooted in the image of a snake, a creature often associated with stealth and danger." 

I'm just wondering of the Secretary is speaking from personal experience here. And perhaps cluing in Laura Ingraham's viewers about his own trustworthiness.

Which would explain Fox News host Laura Ingraham less than enthusiastic expression and response to Secretary Bessent when the Secretary compared Federal workers to snakes... 

From The New Democrat

And from The New Democrat about this yesterday: 

"Before I get into the important point of what I want to say here, I have to say hearing a story like this, about these group of people, who were caught redhanded sharing military secrets, over a private phone... it's not funny. But if 1 of your goals in life is to be the world champion of hypocrisy, this would be a great start: "Damn, these people are serious hypocrites. I got nothing on them. They can have the world title... if they want it that badly". 

As Jessica Tarlov said... and they weren't called MAGA back in 2014 when Hillary Clinton's email story broke, but these are the same people culturally and ideologically, who were accusing HRC of not being trustworthy to protect our national security secrets... 

From The New Democrat

And from Ben Meiselas's colleague Ron Filipkowski over at Meidas (Ron today about the Trump Administration's lie machine: 

"You would think that people who lie so much would be better at it by now from all the practice." 

From Ron Filipkowski

So Ben Meiselas and ABC News do a very good job of laying out all the MAGA lies about Group Chat Gate from the Trump Administration. But Ron Filipkowski pretty much sums up their main problem here in 1 sentence: 

"You would think that people who lie so much would be better at it by now from all the practice." 

And if you are someone who just doesn't love political history, but Hollywood political history films... there's a great line from Hal Holbrook (who played Deepthroat in All The President' Men in 1976) where he's talking to Bob Woodward (played by Robert Redford) about the Watergate burglars and the people in The White House whose job was to cover up the Watergate and the Plummers mess created by President Richard Nixon and his loyalists: 

"The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand". 

The fact is The White House only speaks to 1 audience, which is their MAGA base. They feel as long as they have those small town, blue-collar, folks who think America is has been going to hell since the 1960s because of multiculturalism and everything else from that period... they'll be fine. They just have to stay in there and keep doing all the fighting and attacking the so-called elitists. And anyone who isn't rural, Anglo-Saxon male, they'll just label those folks as DEI when they stand up to this White House. 

So when you are only speaking to 1 audience and morality and honesty if anything are just obstructors to your ultimate goal which is to take over and run America, you can literally lie your asses off in public, even purger yourselves in front of Congress. Because who's going to stop them? 

And my point about Laura Ingraham is something that was made on The New Democrat last week: Ben Meiselas at 1 point in this video said referring to Ingraham: "She almost gets it". He's wrong. She gets it and I think she's also getting tired of having to spend 10-15 minutes of her show every night trying to defend the Keystone Cops as The White House every night. I think she knows how incompetent they are and doesn't even mind letting her viewers get a taste of that. But she doesn't want to lose her job at Fox News and her 7-8 figure income every year from FNC. But that's my observation about her.

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Ben Meisleas: FOX News LOSES IT On AIR As President Trump APPROVAL PLUMMETS

"MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Fox News getting more desperate than ever as Trump’s approval keeps plummeting." 

Source:Medias Touch with a look at MAGA News.

From the Meidas Touch

From Yahoo News: 

"As the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) looks to slash waste and correct inefficiencies, one DOGE advisor revealed it's "hard to really grasp the scale" of problems facing the IRS.

"A huge part of our government is collecting taxes. We cannot perform the basic functions of tax collection without paying a toll to all these contractors. We really have to figure out how to get out of this hole. We're in a really deep hole right now," DOGE representative Sam Corcos said Thursday on "The Ingraham Angle."

The "DOGE bro" shed light on his work within the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to trim the federal government fat alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent... 

Bessent, who was recently confirmed as President Donald Trump's treasury secretary, added "one of the biggest surprises for me is just seeing how these entrenched interests, they just keep constricting themselves around the power, around the money, around the systems, and nobody cares."

"Many of the employees are fantastic. It's this consultant group. They're like a boa constrictor. They're like a python," he said. "They've constricted themselves around our government, and the costs are unbelievable. They're being passed on to the American taxpayer."

"The entrenched interests, the consultants, the Democrats, mainstream media, they just want to blow this project out of the water," Bessent told Ingraham. "This is the opposite of government efficiency, not elimination, not extinction. Sam and his crew are making it more efficient to work for the American people. So what's wrong with it working better, cheaper, faster, and with more privacy?"

Bessent said his top three priorities for the tax collecting bureau are "collections, privacy and customer service," and he argued, "None of those are being well served."

"We want people to feel satisfied that they are getting the service they deserve, that they're paying their fair share and not more, not less. And that it's done quickly, smartly and privately," he said."

From Yahoo News

From Money Wise: 

“Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream,” Bessent said during a speech at the Economic Club of New York on March 6. “The American Dream is rooted in the concept that any citizen can achieve prosperity, upward mobility, and economic security.”

His remarks come at a time when many Americans continue to grapple with high costs of living amid Trump’s threats to impose further tariffs, which experts believe will drive up prices in the short term.

Bessent was later pressed on the issue during an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press.

“Are you saying that the Trump administration is comfortable to have consumers pay more for goods in America?” host Kristen Welker asked.

“Not at all,” Bessent replied. “What I’m saying is the American dream is not ‘let them eat flat screens.’ If American families aren't able to afford a home, don't believe that their children will do better than they are [doing], the American dream is not contingent on cheap baubles from China, it is more than that. And we are focused on affordability, but it's mortgages, it's cars, it's real wage gains.”

From Money Wise

Secretary Scott Bessent's line: "Many of the employees are fantastic. It's this consultant group. They're like a boa constrictor. They're like a python," he said. "They've constricted themselves around our government, and the costs are unbelievable. They're being passed on to the American taxpayer."

Reminds me of this expression: "The expression "you can never trust a snake" is a common idiom used to describe someone who is deceitful, untrustworthy, and potentially dangerous, often implying they are scheming or manipulative. It's rooted in the image of a snake, a creature often associated with stealth and danger." 

I'm just wondering of the Secretary is speaking from personal experience here. And perhaps cluing in Laura Ingraham's viewers about his own trustworthiness.

Which would explain Fox News host Laura Ingraham less than enthusiastic expression and response to Secretary Bessent when the Secretary compared Federal workers to snakes. 

I'm willing to cut Donald Trump's government officials some slack, in this sense: most of them weren't even politicians, or appointed officials before they got their current government jobs. Most of them are oligarchs or very hyper-partisan political activists and commentators from MAGA Land, with very little if any government experience before becoming secretary of this, that, or the other thing. 

And because of the business and political backgrounds that these Trump officials have, that makes them very out-of-touch with even everyday MAGA voters who are paying President Trump's higher prices today, because of his tariffs and the retaliatory tariffs that these countries like in Europe are placing director on Donald Trump's own voters: people who live in small towns and rural communities, who can't afford to pay higher prices on their basic necessities of life. 

I mean this would explain how a man who is worth 500 billion-dollars would make the statement: “Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream,”. Because higher prices on basic necessities doesn't affect him. 

Now, if Scott Bessent were looking to buy a new yacht, Rolls Royce, a new mansion in South Carolina or Virginia, etc, and interest rates were let's say 10%, that would affect him. He might decide not to buy those new luxury items until interest rates came down and perhaps inflation as well. But this man will never have to worry about how he's going to put groceries on the table, meet his mortgage payments... his kids probably already graduated college, etc. So he doesn't think about those things, which is why he doesn't mind making life harder for people who doesn't even think about. 

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FOX News: Larry Kudlow Talks To Elon Musk

"MeidasTouch contributor Anthony Davis reacts to Elon Musk's interview with Larry Kudlow on Fox Business where he was questioned on Donald Trump's tariff plans and DOGE." 

Source:Meidas Touch with a look at the Elon Musk-Larry Kudlow conversation.

From the Meidas Touch

Elon Musk: "In fact, there was a report issued by the GAO, the Government Accountability Office, last year. So during the Biden administration, which estimated the federal government fraud to be half a trillion dollars. So just to be clear, that’s not a Trump administration thing, that’s a Biden administration thing.

Elon Musk: What we’re trying to do is get that number down to a much smaller figure, save money for the American taxpayer, stop money being spent on things that are, that I think very few taxpayers would agree makes sense. You know, transgender animal surgeries, or why are we spending, why are American tax dollars being spent on this? And the President’s gone through a long list of absurd things. Why are the 20 million people who are definitely dead marked as alive in the social security database? Why we're hundreds of millions of dollars of small business administration loans given out to people aged 11 and under, according to the social security? Like these must be some very enterprising eight-year-olds, you know? And some pretty strong 150-year-olds.

[ELON MUSK:] Right, well, we just basically follow the money. You know, we look at the President’s executive orders, and we also just follow the money.

So we started looking closely at USAID because they were completely violating the President’s executive orders to suspend foreign aid, you know, what’s called foreign aid, but in our view is a lot of corruption. So what we saw there is just a tremendous amount of money being sent to non-governmental organizations. But actually, this, by the way, is I think one of the biggest sources of fraud in the world, is government-funded non-governmental organizations.

[ELON MUSK:] In fact, they try their best to thwart presidential policy. So the president is the elected representative of the people. And if the president cannot get things implemented as a reflection of the will of the people, then what we have is not a democracy. We have a bureaucracy. We have rule of the bureau, not rule of the people. And that’s what we’re trying to defeat here is the bureaucracy and have rule of the people...

From The Singju Post

I guess I have a few reactions here. 

Meidas Touch host Anthony Davis talks way too much. We would've gotten a lot more here out of Elon Musk, if they just played the damn interview and then Davis could talk about what he thinks about it. What we got instead was maybe 10-15 seconds of Musk and then maybe a minute of Davis commentary right after that, before he would set up the next point. 

And then my 2nd point is: wouldn't you love to be a body language expert and examine Elon Musk every time he speaks about anything... at least when he's doing his interviews? There seems to be no preparation on his part. Musk seems to be thinking about what he should say, as he's trying to say it, and perhaps gets caught in-between points as well. 

Larry Kudlow is not what you would call a hard-nose journalist. Actually, he's not a journalist. He's a right-wing economic affairs commentator, with his own political talk show. He's just throwing batting practice softball after batting practice softball at Elon Musk. Questions like: 

"What is it like running the greatest business in the world and trying to reform the U.S. Government at the same time?" And Musk says something like: "It's tough sledding". A high school student could hit that pitch a lot farther. But Musk barely makes contact on it and just wants to move on. 

If there was 1 key point from this so-called interview between Larry Kudlow and Elon Musk, it would be this: 

Elon Musk: "In fact, they try their best to thwart presidential policy. So the president is the elected representative of the people. And if the president cannot get things implemented as a reflection of the will of the people, then what we have is not a democracy. We have a bureaucracy. We have rule of the bureau, not rule of the people. And that’s what we’re trying to defeat here is the bureaucracy and have rule of the people...

And this is what I really want you to concentrate on: 

Elon Musk: "And if the president cannot get things implemented as a reflection of the will of the people, then what we have is not a democracy. We have a bureaucracy". 

There a few key responses to this: 

I'm now in may late 40s. I'm from the same generation as Elon Musk (a nightmare that I have to live with everyday) but 5-6 years younger than him: 

I'm in my late teens in the mid-1990s during the New Gingrich Revolution in Washington, when Republicans use to claim that America was a republic, not a democracy. 

The same thing with George W. Bush in the 2000s and the Tea Party/MAGA in the 2010s. 

Now that MAGA and their Oligarchs are in complete control of Washington in the mid 2020s, Elon and company are claiming that America should be some type of oligarchy, I mean democracy. (My bad) They believe the President of the United States should basically be able to do whatever the hell he wants to. Why? Because the American people elected Donald Trump. According to Elon Musk, President Trump is the representative of all the people. Including the 75 million people who voted for Kamala Harris.

Only in dictatorships can the chief executive of the executive branch do whatever he wants to. I guess just as long as the security state and military state, as well as his cabinet and party supports him. But as much as Elon Musk and Donald Trump hates this, we're not an oligarchic dictatorship, yet. We have checks and balances all over the Federal Government, as well as we should. Especially when someone comes into power believing that they shouldn't have any accountability and be able to do whatever they want, with no accountability. 

My final point here: Elon Musk is exactly what he's been putting Federal employees down for being ever since Donald J. Trump became President in January: an unelected bureaucrat. And he's someone who had very little, if any understanding about how the U.S. Government and our Constitution before he came to Donald Trump's White House. And is now getting on the job training at its worst.

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Michael Popok: Economy TANKS As Donald Trump LIES to VOTERS FACES

"Trump is so disconnected from the American Public, that he calls a recession that will cripple the economy and kill American dreams, as “just a period of transition” as he goes on Fox Business with his best friend Maria Bartiromo and makes it worse, as we woke up to an increasingly gloomy financial markets who weren’t happy with his comments.  Michael Popok puts on his Wall Street hat to do a deep dive." 

Source:Medias Touch with a look at President Donald J. Trump (MAGA, Florida) 47th POTUS & its 1st wannabe dictator.

From the Meidas Touch

I would be 1 of the last people to claim to be an expert on Wall Street... but only because I'm not. But I know this fact about it: if there's 1 thing that they want and expect the most from government, it's stability: 

They want to know what the government policy is 

what the taxes are going to look like 

tariff policy 

whether the U.S. Government will shut down or not. 

And the fact that the President of the United States doesn't know, or can't even predict whether or not the American economy which hasn't been in recession since 2020, will be in recession or not (on his watch by the way) at some point this year, is really bad for Wall Street. Which is really bad for anyone who has money in the market, perhaps runs their own business, looking to buy a home, get a loan, etc. 

As much Donald Trump might want to call himself "the Wall Street President", (which is what he was doing in his first term, before the Stock Market crashed on his watch the 1st time, because of COVID, which was also on his watch.) he's more like the last guy at the bar President, whose barely able to stay up on his stool. He just says whatever comes to his mind off the cuff, takes the last position form the last person that he talked too. 

And when the flip of the coin approach to governing works, the President takes credit for it, when it doesn't, he acts like he never spoke to that person before, or blames in on Joe Biden. And Wall Street doesn't want people like that running the economy and the country. But a lot of those folks voted for the madman anyway. 

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