Thursday Afternoon Breaking News Updates with Ben - 4/23/2026

4/23/202663 mincomplete
0:01Welcome to Ben on Breaking News.
0:03I'm Ben Micellis and this is Breaking News.
0:06Let's get into it right away.
0:08Moments ago, Donald Trump held this disastrous Oval Office press conference and during this press
0:14conference, that's what I was waiting for just to see what was happening.
0:18The feed cuts out. Let me show you what happens.
0:20He's talking about the catastrophic war.
0:22He's doing his typical lies.
0:24The feed cuts out. Watch what happens here.
0:26Play this clip. He said, I could use a shit.
0:35And then the feed cuts out.
0:37I don't know if he's having a medical emergency over there, but he's saying that
0:40he could use a shit right now.
0:42And that's what's going on in the Oval Office.
0:45There was a press conference was supposed to be about lowering prescription drug prices.
0:49In a moment, I'll show you all of the lies that Donald Trump was saying
0:53about this catastrophic war in Iran and how it is quicker than he expected.
0:59And he already won and he saved young girls.
1:02That's his new one. He created a completely fictitious story where he's saved eight young
1:09girls. I'm not sure if it's AI or just a made up story, but he's
1:13saved eight girls. He called up the Iranians and he said to them, I need
1:18you to release the eight girls.
1:20And the Iranians picked up and said, no, we're not going to release it.
1:23And then Donald Trump said, I'm going to make your life a living hell.
1:26I'm going to blow up your bridges.
1:28I'm going to destroy your civilization, release the eight young, beautiful little girls.
1:33Do you hear me? To which MB Galabaf and Aragchi and Pazeski and the others
1:40in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps said, okay, Donald, are you going to do another
1:44nasty social media post in all caps?
1:47And then Donald Trump's like, if you do not release those beautiful little girls, I
1:52am going to do a social media post and it's going to be really mean.
1:57And there's going to be multiple exclamation points and lots of capitalized letters to which
2:02Iran said, please, please, this is getting serious.
2:05Please don't do that. Yeah, it is serious.
2:08Release the pretty little girls now.
2:10Okay. Okay. We're going to do it, but please don't do the post.
2:15You see what I did?
2:16I saved the little girls, everybody.
2:19I mean, I know that looks psychotic.
2:24That's what Donald Trump continues to claim is happening.
2:27Oh, you know, let me explain.
2:29And then he has state regime media, which calls itself Fox, like parrot these things.
2:34And you'll have like Jesse Waters do a segment.
2:36So why did Donald Trump agree to extend the ceasefire deadline?
2:40Let me explain to you what happened.
2:42You see the Ayatollah is a gay man, a very gay man.
2:46And then the Ayatollah was told by the Islamic revolutionary guard, you're a gay man
2:52and we're going to lock you up right now.
2:55We're doing a coup. So the Islamic revolutionary guard course at Ayatollah, you do not
3:00have negotiations with Donald Trump.
3:02You understand. And so Donald Trump's like, we're trying to make a deal.
3:06We're trying to make a deal.
3:07Who do we do it with?
3:08And the Islamic revolutionary guards, like, we're not going to do anything like that.
3:12So Donald Trump said, what am I going to do here?
3:15Should I obliterate your civilization?
3:17And then the Islamic revolutionary guard was like, no, no, no, hold off.
3:21We're going to work with a seam you near the Pakistani field marshal, and we're
3:26going to figure this out.
3:27Can you give us an extension?
3:29And then the field marshal said, Donald, we need your help.
3:33Okay. They've locked up the gay Ayatollah.
3:36And I mean, by the way, if you're like, Ben, what the hell?
3:39That's literally what I'm just saying is the segment on Jesse Waters on like a
3:44Fox primetime show. Like I'm not being hyperbolic.
3:48Like he said those things.
3:49And then as a result, that is why Donald Trump gave Iran a ceasefire extension
3:55indefinitely. Trump said he was going to obliterate the civilization, destroy everything, but that's what
4:01actually happened. Like, do we all realize how freaking humiliating this is?
4:05I mean, we have literally a demented, psychotic, delusional thing in the Oval Office who's
4:15talking about taking shits, you know, in the Oval Office during press conference.
4:19I'm not trying to be gross.
4:21That's what he's saying when the feed cuts out while he's out there making up
4:26lie after lie after lie about the war and bragging.
4:29The Vietnam War lasted 18 years, so I'm beating the Vietnam War.
4:34Dude, you dodge the draft five times in the Vietnam War.
4:39What world are you in habit?
4:41What are you talking about right now?
4:43And let's talk about the reality, like what's actually happening right now in Iran.
4:48All of their leadership from the judiciary to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard to the parliament
4:53to their foreign affairs minister, they all put out joint statements after Donald Trump's been
4:59making all of these, you know, weird posts and lies about what's going on in
5:04Iran. They each made a post at the same time that basically says the same
5:08thing. So the parliament leader writes in Iran, there are no radicals or moderates.
5:13We are all Iranian and revolutionary.
5:15And with iron unity of the nation and government, with complete obedience to the supreme
5:20leader of the revolution, we will make the aggressor criminal regret his actions.
5:24One God, one leader, one nation, and one path, the path being the path to
5:30victory for Iran, dearer than life.
5:33And they all wrote some variation of that.
5:35You can see Aragji. You can see the head of the judiciary.
5:39Aragji is their foreign minister.
5:41Separately, you can see the head of the...
5:42And they all reposted each other's messages.
5:45So you have Iran making posts like that, while you have Donald Trump this morning
5:49saying, let's kill Iranians who don't want to do a deal.
5:53I'm ordering the Navy to shoot any boat, putting mines in the strait.
5:57We actually have full control over the strait of Hormuz.
6:01Actually, I don't need to do a deal.
6:03And then he holds a press conference where the feed cuts out where he says,
6:07I need a shit. I mean, this is the United States of America.
6:11This is the most... Once the most powerful nation in the world.
6:15This is the reality that we inhabit.
6:18And we're supposed to go on and just act like this is all normal.
6:22While the strait of Hormuz is closed, it's under the control of Iran.
6:28No ships are getting in and out except a few ships that are linked to
6:31Iran. And they're able to get around the blockade.
6:35Two ships that tried to jump the strait of Hormuz and get out to test
6:40Iran. They were boarded by Iran's Navy.
6:43Yes, the same Navy that the Trump regime claims doesn't exist.
6:47Okay, that's the reality of what's going on.
6:50And we still have the biggest oil shock in history.
6:54The oil, the crude is not leaving and getting to its destination at anywhere near.
7:04Right now, it's a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of what it was
7:07before the war. And because Donald Trump is doing a fake blockade, a blockade to
7:15make him feel good, but is not all that effective, but a blockade nonetheless, then
7:21doing some interdictions in the Indo -Pacific of ghost ships linked with Iran.
7:28That's what Donald Trump thinks is the way to negotiate right now.
7:32I'm just going to put this naval blockade on.
7:34That's how strong I am.
7:36Look what we're going to do.
7:37What we board cargo ships.
7:39The great, proud American Navy is now basically Jack Sparrow.
7:45Like we're pirates. Like that's what we do right now in the United States Navy.
7:49Meanwhile, you have the, uh, secretary of Navy, John Phelan resigning, uh, or he was
7:58fired. He said he was resigning, but we, we learned what actually happened.
8:01And Pete Hegseth wanted him gone.
8:04Apparently he was following, uh, certain court orders as it relates to Senator Kelly being
8:10disciplined. Um, and Phelan wouldn't, uh, break the law, even though, I mean, this guy
8:16has no military back. He's a private equity guy, John Phelan, no connections with the
8:21Navy, no connections with our military.
8:24He's a rich private equity guy who was a Republican donor.
8:29And that's what allowed Donald Trump to pick him as the secretary of Navy.
8:35And then he quickly got fired because he wouldn't fully violate the law.
8:39Like Hegseth wanted him to do.
8:42And so now you have hung cow is going to take over as acting secretary
8:47hung cow. Do we, do we have any clips, Jeremy of the guy who's now
8:52it's like in the middle of a catastrophic war, we fired the chief of staff
9:00of the army, four -star general, general, general, Randy George.
9:04It's the top position in the United States army.
9:07We previously fired the chairman of the joint chiefs at the beginning of Donald Trump's
9:13term Brown. We fired that guy.
9:16Um, two other top people were fired when general George, the army chief of staff,
9:21uh, was fired. And so not just, so the top army person and the top
9:27Navy person during the middle of the war have been fired by the Trump regime,
9:35complete chaos, complete disarray. And now we have hung cow.
9:39Jeremy's like, which our editor, Jeremy goes, which clip of hung cow should we play?
9:43Jeremy literally play any of them right now.
9:46Okay. Play any of them because they're each worse than the next.
9:49So just play whichever one you want to.
9:51This is great. I know I'll be attacked by left and call me white supremacist,
9:54but I have one asked for them.
9:56It's just when you give me my hood, make sure it's got the little slits
9:59and not the circles. So I can see better.
10:02Captain hung cow. Thank you very much for joining us in war room.
10:06Oh, KKK jokes. Oh, so funny.
10:09So funny. And Steve, what are you doing, man?
10:13Could these people behave like grownups, please?
10:17Can they just behave like adults who behaves like this?
10:20Do we have another clip of hung cow?
10:22The one on, uh, on witchcraft and that people in California practice witchcraft, according to
10:27the new acting secretary of the Navy.
10:30Here, play this clip. There's a place, um, in Monterey, California called Lover's Point.
10:35Yeah. The original name was Lover's of Christ Point, but now it's because.
10:39They took out the Christ, it's Lover's Point, and it's really, Monterey is a very
10:43dark place now. A lot of witchcraft and the Wiccan community has really taken over
10:49there. And we can't let that happen in Virginia.
10:51Virginia is, I mean, especially down in Roanoke, they're God -loving people.
10:56Richmond, too, and Virginia Beach, and we just need to mobilize Christians across the nation.
11:01Okay, well, while he brings up Virginia, we might as well acknowledge that in Virginia,
11:09the yes referendum vote passed, assuring a constitutional amendment in Virginia's constitution that would allow
11:19the congressional delegation in Virginia to be redistricted.
11:24So it's 10 Democrats, one Republican, yes, a Republican -appointed extremist judge did rule to
11:32block the mid -district gerrymander that occurred, the constitutional amendment.
11:37Most observers of this believe that the Virginia Supreme Court is going to allow the
11:44constitutional amendment to stay in place and is going to overrule what the lower court
11:50did. There's arguments that are going to happen in the Virginia Supreme Court.
11:54If you look at the prior rulings by the Virginia Supreme Court regarding this specific
12:01constitutional amendment, where the Virginia Supreme Court could have struck it down before it was
12:09voted on by the people, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of allowing the redistricting
12:15to take place. That's why when people tell you that they're pretty confident the Virginia
12:20Supreme Court should, we don't know, but should rule to uphold the amendment, they've had
12:25this exact issue before them where they've upheld the new maps and what was going
12:30on in the legislature and allowed the referendum to proceed before.
12:34So that's why when people are like, yeah, we know that this lower court blocked
12:38it, but we think Virginia's Supreme Court is going to allow the referendum.
12:43And it's like, why is it even a question?
12:44And why are Republicans so whiny about it?
12:46Isn't this what you wanted?
12:48Isn't this what you wanted?
12:49Democrats in Congress at the federal level wanted there to be a law passed that
12:55would ban all gerrymandering, get rid of political gerrymandering.
12:59That was the Democrats' position.
13:01The Democrat position is we don't want gerrymandering.
13:04Let's just compete fairly in every state.
13:07No political gerrymandering at all.
13:10Let's just end the practice.
13:11It makes no sense. It's stupid when you look at these districts where, you know,
13:15the idea that you could politically gerrymander and slice up districts so that your side
13:20can win. Democrats are saying we want to ban that.
13:23Republicans blocked that legislation. So let's just deal with the facts.
13:28Okay. And Democrats didn't start this gerrymandering mid -decade redistricting.
13:36Democrats previously were playing by the rules of the stupid game, right?
13:42The rules of the stupid game is every 10 years, there's a census.
13:46And then based on the census, you can then politically gerrymander.
13:50And then a lot of the gerrymandering that would take place had these racial components
13:55to them. But then you would try to claim the Republicans particularly.
13:59But I'm not saying, you know, it's all, you know, it's a bad practice gerrymandering.
14:03Democrats want to ban it.
14:05Ban it. But they would say, oh, no, it wasn't a racial gerrymandering.
14:08The reason that we kicked out black people or the reason that we kicked out
14:13this group or that group from voting is because of the political identities, not because
14:19of any racial considerations. You know, and meanwhile, you had the Supreme Court gutting the
14:25Voting Rights Act from the 1960s, you know, and the enforcement mechanisms and the pre
14:30-clearance requirements, which meant before you could do any gerrymandering at all, you had to
14:36go to the Department of Justice and a three -district court panel to approve your
14:41gerrymander, and they had to pre -clear it before you can do it.
14:47Now you can do it, and then you have to then file lawsuits about it.
14:53But Trump went into Texas first, right?
14:56Trump went into Texas first and did the five seats, and he was bragging, here's
15:02what we're going to do, here's what we're going to do, and then Democrats fought
15:04back. Democrats challenged what was going on in Texas, and the Supreme Court of the
15:09United States said, we're going to let it happen.
15:11It's political. Political gerrymandering, okay.
15:14Racial gerrymandering, not okay. So just call the racial gerrymandering political gerrymandering, and then you're
15:19good. It's basically what the Supreme Court ruled.
15:21I think it's a ridiculous ruling, but then that became the rules of the game.
15:25So Democrats said, okay, you do it, we do it, right?
15:28Gavin Newsom then said, we're going to do Prop 50.
15:31We'll neutralize your seats in Texas.
15:34And Democrats picked up five seats in California.
15:37So Republicans got five seats in Texas.
15:39Democrats got five seats in California.
15:41That was neutralized. Donald Trump then tried to run to different states to pick up
15:45a seat here or a seat there.
15:47Democrats did the same thing when they took control of the governorship in Virginia with
15:52Spanberger. Democrats said, okay, temporarily, we're going to do a 10 to 1 map in
15:57favor of Democrats. Democrats and then Democrats now have an actual lead in the aggregate
16:03from all of the gerrymandering.
16:05This whole thing backfired. This was a dummy.
16:07dummymander, the dummymander on Donald Trump.
16:10And Democrats will now pick up more seats and potentially even more because Democrats have
16:15been overperforming. So Democrats may win some of those Texas seats that were dummymandered by
16:21Donald Trump and Abbott, believing Hispanic voters were moving in favor of Trump and MAGA,
16:26which they're not. So if those Hispanic voters vote the way they're voting in the
16:31special elections right now, not only are the Democrats going to neutralize what MAGA and
16:38Trump and Abbott have done in Texas and in some other states by picking up
16:42five seats in California, four seats.
16:47Right now it's six to five in Virginia and sooner will be 10 -1.
16:52So it's a pickup of about four additional seats there.
16:55So Democrats pick up anywhere from nine to 10 seats if you count Utah.
17:00Republicans pick up about five to six seats if you count Texas.
17:03Democrats are plus four, but Democrats may win some of those Texas seats as well,
17:06you see, if they continue to overperform in these special elections.
17:10And so now MAGA's like, oh my God, we never thought this through.
17:13It backfired. Oh my gosh.
17:15It's why Democrats need to fight back.
17:17It's why we all, regardless of political parties, affiliations, you need to just fight back
17:21against fascism. You need to punch fascism back in its face.
17:25And you got to stand up and exercise all of the authority.
17:28You have moral authority, formal authority, bring the community together and stand up to stand
17:33up to all this stuff.
17:34Right. I mean, they don't, they're not really strategic thinkers.
17:39Okay. I mean, that's one of the issues.
17:41If you go to Iran, you know what Donald Trump saying he didn't think through
17:45that Iran would block the Strait of Hormuz.
17:48Didn't think that was going to happen.
17:50Didn't think Iran was going to attack the neighbors.
17:52Donald Trump says this publicly.
17:54Nobody expected them to shut down the Strait of Hormuz.
17:57Nobody expected them to attack their neighbors where there are American interests, which is what
18:03Iran struck. American interests in his Arab nation neighbors.
18:06No, no one thought, no one thought this could happen.
18:10Okay. So you just rushed into this war with Netanyahu.
18:14You and Netanyahu, you don't tell any of the Arab nations that are supposedly allied
18:18with you. You don't tell NATO.
18:19You don't tell anyone. You just, you do it alone.
18:21Then you start attacking NATO and all of our allies.
18:25And then you act shocked when Iran does what actually all of the generals and
18:29admirals and your chairman of the joint chiefs warned you about.
18:33We were talking about this on Midas Touch for a very long period of time.
18:36And then don't even get me started on the fact that last June, Donald Trump
18:40said he totally obliterated Iran's nuclear capabilities and anything to suggest otherwise Trump said is
18:46defamatory. He'll sue you. He's so, he's so thin skinned.
18:50He'll sue you because if you dare even say even a little bit that it
18:56was not totally obliterated. Okay.
18:57So if it was obliterated, what's the point of, what's the point of any of
19:00this, you know, and then you see the messages that he makes today.
19:03And the messages today are, as I said, let's kill the Iranians who don't want
19:07a deal. I'm ordering the Navy, shoot any boat, putting mines in the Strait.
19:11We actually have full control over the Strait.
19:14I don't need a deal.
19:16I don't need a deal.
19:18Okay. You're all over the place right here.
19:19And then he makes up again, these like fictitious stories about things that aren't happening.
19:24Like he goes, Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader
19:28is. They just don't know.
19:30The infighting is between the hardliners who have been losing badly on the battlefield and
19:35the moderates who are not very moderate at all, but gaining respect.
19:38It's crazy. We have total control over the Strait of Hormuz.
19:42No ship can enter or leave without the approval of the United States.
19:46It's sealed up tight until such time as Iran is able to make a deal.
19:49Well, it's every aspect of this is false.
19:51Like it's like a made up story.
19:52And I'm not sure, I mean, is your audience literally Jesse waters?
19:57And so Jesse waters can then say this to, you know, the MAGA brain morons
20:02who watch him still like, is, is that what this, is that the intended audience
20:07for this? Because aren't you trying to accomplish something in these negotiations?
20:12In theory, aren't we trying to figure something out, right?
20:15You have two paths. You're either going to go to war and escalate, or you're
20:18going to negotiate. But when you say stupid shit like this, to use a term
20:21that Donald Trump used when the feed cut out this morning or moments ago, Iran
20:26just thinks you're an idiot.
20:27They just think you're weak and pathetic.
20:29So do NATO countries. So does China.
20:31So does Russia, they look at you and they go, this guy is just out
20:34of his mind and not like out of his mind, like, Ooh, it's like the,
20:38uh, crazy Ivan. Like, what's he going to do next?
20:41No, like literally like, like this guy is like a pathetic, weak maniac.
20:46Like what do we even, what do we even do with him?
20:48So he's like, we control the straight of her moves.
20:51Okay. If we control the straight of her moves, then bring ships in.
20:55If you believe you control the straight of her moves, then take the USS Gerald
20:59Ford and bring it in and see what happens.
21:02So you control it. Bring, bring the mind sweeping ships in, bring, bring them in.
21:09See what happens. See, see, see actually what happens there.
21:11We'll see. Why don't you bring in the USS Tripoli, bring in some of the
21:15ships. Just why don't you take it all the way into the Persian Gulf?
21:19And why don't you see what happens if you totally control it?
21:22And then this whole story about the hardliners against the moderates in Iran, fiction, just
21:28not true. There's nothing true about this.
21:31And then, so when the media is like, well, Trump says, Trump says, yeah, Trump's
21:33a liar. He see. He lies about everything.
21:36I saw one of these stupid, some of them are really good, but some of
21:40them are just such like Trump bootlickers, this open source intelligence.
21:47What's one of them? Some of them are really good, so I don't mean to
21:50attack someone. But there was ones like, I don't understand what happened last Friday when
21:55Donald Trump said that he reached all of these agreements with Iran and he was
21:59very specific. And so what happened that it all fell apart.
22:03Did Iran miscommunicate? No, no, Donald Trump lies about everything.
22:07This isn't some complicated thing to figure out.
22:11The guy lies about everything, every word, every sound, every syllable, every utterance, every shit,
22:17everything that the guy says is 100 % a lie, lie, lie.
22:21Like there's nothing. It is, it is the guy should be in a straight jacket
22:27in a very serious involuntary psychiatric ward.
22:31That's the truth. That is the reality of his situation.
22:35Yet this is act, we act, not we here, but the others act like, oh,
22:39you know, this is what he does.
22:42This is his negotiating style.
22:43It's five, no, no. He deserves to be in a straight jacket and put in
22:47a psychiatric ward. He's, he's a psychotic human being.
22:51And I'm not trying to use a clinical diagnosis in order to, or my opinion
22:57thereof, I should say, in order to like alleviate what a malicious, horrible human he
23:03is. So I always have to be careful, but, but I mean, this is someone
23:07who is a completely untethered from reality and he wants to bend other people's reality
23:14and live in his horrible, you know, terrible world of lies.
23:20And he wants you to live in there.
23:20I mean, look at this other post that he makes money.
23:23I've ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any small boats or ships.
23:30I've destroyed all of their naval ships that are putting mines in the waters.
23:34There is to be no hesitation.
23:37Additionally, our mine sweepers are clearing the straight right now.
23:42I'm hereby ordering that activity to continue, but at a tripled up level.
23:48Thank you for your attention to this matter.
23:50Wow. Our mine sweepers. Did you all know this?
23:52Everybody are mine sweepers, even though their satellite imagery and all are actually in the
23:59straight right now, as we speak, and they're doing such a good job right now.
24:03So amazing, right? That Donald Trump has asked that they triple their efforts.
24:11So we're going to even do more mine sweepers inside the straight of Hormuz.
24:16And that's what's happening right now.
24:18Everybody, right? You don't have any mine sweepers in the straight of Hormuz.
24:22For a moment in time, when there were the initial talks in Islamabad, Pakistan, you
24:31sent a mine sweeper for a very short period of time.
24:36The Iranian Navy got on their public channel and said, Saipa Navy, Saipa Navy, turn
24:43around or we'll shoot. Saipa Navy, Saipa Navy, turn around and we'll shoot.
24:48And then the United States naval ship said, Saipa Navy, we are turning around.
24:54We are turning around. We hear you.
24:56We're turning around. And then the U .S.
24:58naval ship turned around. And then the Trump regime denied that.
25:01Then we got video footage of that.
25:03That's exactly what happened. And so you sent a Navy ship to play chicken with
25:09the Iranian Navy. And then when the Iranian Navy, which you claim is obliterated, said
25:14Saipa Navy, turn around, our Navy turned around.
25:19I don't like that as the result.
25:21You think I'm rooting for that as the result right now?
25:24You think I want to see our proud Navy looking like this?
25:32By the way, as Donald Trump fired the U .S.
25:37Navy Secretary, one of the things that Donald Trump was upset with the Navy Secretary
25:42about was that Trump wanted Trump battleships built.
25:47And the Trump ships were not being built quick enough.
25:50You see, Donald Trump doesn't like aircraft carriers.
25:53He doesn't like stealth ships.
25:55And he doesn't like the smaller, more mobile ships.
25:58Donald Trump likes the ships that were used in World War I, the big kind
26:04of tank -looking steel, whatever, whenever those ships were made of.
26:09That's what he likes. And so he wants Trump -class battleships that look like World
26:15War I ships and early World War II ships.
26:19That's what he wants. And those weren't being built quick enough.
26:23And you're like, well, Ben, you're making this up.
26:24I've done so many videos on this.
26:26So you go watch the other videos that I do if you want.
26:29And then Donald Trump posts this.
26:31Let's kill the negotiators or let's kill the ones who don't want to deal.
26:36Let's kill them. Let's kill them.
26:38Look, bottom line, I said this before.
26:40If your view, Donald, is let's kill them and you want to be a war
26:44criminal, and you already are.
26:47But if you want to go in the direction of escalation, our generals and admirals
26:53and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and others, they've given you the plan of
26:58if you want to escalate, you'll destroy the markets.
27:01You'll put the United States.
27:02in a Great Depression, more significantly, you'll cause deaths of at least tens of thousands
27:07of American soldiers, maybe hundreds of thousands, or maybe even more than that.
27:11But if you want to talk, kill, kill, kill, okay?
27:15There's a path. There's a kill path for you, okay?
27:18There's a kill path for you.
27:19But you saw the direction the war was going.
27:22You begged for the ceasefire with Iran.
27:25You agreed to their 10 -point framework.
27:27That's why we are where we are now.
27:29And they're not moving off of their 10 -point framework.
27:33I'm sure, I'm sure that if you remove the naval blockade and you agreed to
27:40concede some things that Iran wants, I would be willing to bet that Iran would
27:47move away from some of those 10 points.
27:51I believe they would go, they would move, which ones?
27:54I mean, I think they definitely want permanent security guarantees for themselves in Hezbollah, as
27:59well as the Houthis and their Shiite groups in Iraq.
28:02I think that's one. I think that they would agree to not enrich uranium to
28:08weapons grade in a very similar way they did with Obama.
28:13Maybe Obama's would be slightly stronger than what they would agree to now because they
28:18feel that they won on the battlefield.
28:20They feel that they now, they have something they didn't have with Obama.
28:23They controlled the Strait of Hormuz.
28:25But I think they'd probably be willing to do a deal that looks like a
28:28weaker version of Obama's JCPOA, but something similar.
28:32So I think you'd get that.
28:34My gut would be that they would, here's my suspicion, that they would give up
28:40control over the Strait of Hormuz if you agreed that they could get paid reparations
28:47for the war in the form of either attacks on the ships until they reach
28:54a certain threshold. And then it gets transferred back to international kind of international control.
29:00But until they get, I think they claim their damages are $267 billion.
29:05So maybe you would meet somewhere in the middle.
29:08You would say, okay, Iran will, I'm not suggesting this should be, but this is
29:13where a negotiation would work, would I think net out.
29:16$75 billion, which you can recover based on ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
29:23Either the ships pay you or we pay you.
29:26And by the way, how humiliating would that be?
29:28It'd be very humiliating, but I'm trying to describe what I actually think a workable
29:33resolution is. Then you'd open up the Strait of Hormuz.
29:36We would then want an international coalition to make sure it doesn't get closed again.
29:40So we would say, okay, as long as we make these payments, we're going to
29:44now work with our NATO ally, former NATO allies, I guess, European countries, Arab nations,
29:50and we need to let those ships in so that we have other militaries in
29:58there to prevent Iran from closing the Strait of Hormuz after Iran gets paid what
30:02it wants to get paid.
30:04Iran, you can, I mean, you'd probably have to let them keep their ballistic missiles
30:08and Shahid drones, and you'd probably have to lift sanctions.
30:12What I described is probably the deal that is workable.
30:18There'll have to be technical details, obviously, with the Atomic Energy Commission to iron out
30:23dilution of nuclear material, very specific stuff that Whitcoff, Kushner, and J .D.
30:31Vance know nothing about, but that's ultimately how a resolution to me would look.
30:37If you're going, Ben, Ben, that's a sellout, man.
30:41Are you selling out? I'm a patriot, 250th anniversary, man.
30:46You're selling out the great country, man.
30:49Okay, well, then don't do a deal.
30:52Then go back to war.
30:53Go back to war. That's an option for you.
30:57Go to war. But the reality is that we're in this strategic, non -strategic, but
31:06we're in this situation because of Donald Trump going it alone with Netanyahu.
31:10He screwed up. We lost.
31:12Okay, we lost based on what our objectives were.
31:16Regime change, people in the streets were supposed to greet Trump and Netanyahu like heroes.
31:20I mean, how ridiculous of a concept is that?
31:22Um, and then we're going to obliterate this, obliterate all of their missile capabilities, all
31:29the things they said at the beginning.
31:30We didn't do that. That's why we lost, right?
31:33It seems pretty basic. Those were the objectives.
31:35Win. Objectives of cheap? No.
31:37Loss. Very basic. Very binary, right?
31:40Okay, so now we have to figure out what to do.
31:43If you want to win, okay.
31:45Treat it like it's the second quarter.
31:47Go to war again. Do a ground invasion of Karg Island.
31:50See what happens. I don't support that.
31:52It's war crimes. I'd be very clear where I said, that's your option.
31:56That's an option. The other option is negotiate.
32:01And the deal probably looks eerily similar to what I described.
32:06And again, I've, just to be clear, I've never been in a negotiation regarding nuclear
32:13material in my life. I haven't.
32:15I do teach negotiation at a prominent law school.
32:20I do, in my past as a litigator, I was involved in some of the
32:26most contentious and high -profile cases involved.
32:30involving negotiations and settlements and resolutions before I started working at Midas.
32:36So I at least know in a very high intensity business setting in front of
32:41the top mediators in the world, I've led mediations and settlements.
32:46So I think at least that experience gives me some insight.
32:51I am a rapacious student of the Middle East and Iran and what their people
32:57are saying, because in order for us to understand how to negotiate, you have to
33:03listen. One of the things I teach my law students in negotiation, listen, ask, shut
33:09up. The worst negotiator is like a Trump.
33:15Worst negotiator. The best negotiator, you ask a question and you fill the negotiation with
33:23silence and you listen to what the other side is saying.
33:28Strategic silence. You hear them and then you ask them questions.
33:33Well, it seems to me what you're saying is this.
33:40Listen, because people will start to say how they feel.
33:44And am I missing anything here?
33:46Who are the key decision makers?
33:49Should there be anyone else that I'm talking to?
33:52Well, what do you think about this?
33:54Gather the info and the info is out there.
33:58That's why I know how to reach a resolution in this thing, because the info
34:02is out there. I'll show you what the worst behavior is.
34:05Jeremy, do we have first show that clip again for people just joining us of
34:09Donald Trump as the feed cuts off saying that he had to take a shit?
34:12Here, play this clip. He said, I could use a shit.
34:20I could use a shit.
34:22That's what goes on in the Oval Office.
34:24No, I'm not suggesting that presidents are impervious to taking shits.
34:28I'll be very clear about that.
34:30But I mean, is it such word vomit that you literally have to announce to
34:35your staff when you have to go do a number two?
34:38I mean, that's where we are, that this is the guy walk around the White
34:42House, just talking about taking shits.
34:45I mean, I mean, for real, is this, this is what the White House, okay.
34:51And here he is talking about how he saved eight young women.
34:54It's a totally made up story.
34:55I've saved eight young, beautiful women.
34:57They're so young, very young.
34:59I saved him. I saved him.
35:01False. Here, play this clip.
35:03Or the military operation, whatever you want to call it.
35:06And they're coming to us.
35:08The problem they have is they are very disorganized right now.
35:12Well, now yesterday, and I was very pleased with this, eight young women were going
35:17to be executed yesterday afternoon at six o 'clock.
35:21And I asked them, call it a favor.
35:25I call it just a moral request that they not be executed.
35:29And they came back with an answer that they won't be executed.
35:32They're going to release. It was protesting.
35:35Eight beautiful young women, very young women.
35:38And they were, the pictures in the paper.
35:40And it's been a story for a little while.
35:42And I saw that. And I said, let's see, we can save them.
35:46And they were, it was very nice what happened.
35:49So they're not going to be, what they're doing is, as you know, they're releasing
35:52four of them very shortly.
35:54And they're going to keep four of them in jail for a period of one
35:57month and release them. So they won't be executed.
35:59Yeah. So if you're asking for.
36:01None of that's true. You're like, Ben, which part of it?
36:06None of it. The guy just makes it up.
36:10He invented a thing that maybe he saw somewhere online.
36:15And he's like, I saved these eight beautiful women.
36:18I did it. I had the conversation.
36:20They were so young and pretty.
36:21And I saved him. What are you talking about?
36:24Or I mean, all of the Iranian leaders are publicly posting like that, that you're
36:30making this up. Like they're not talking to you and they have no interest in
36:33having any conversation with you at all until the naval blockade is lifted.
36:38I'll show you this one over here.
36:40How long are you willing to wait for a response from Iran?
36:43So to be very clear, just so we can sequence the questions.
36:47The fact that this next question is even asked, right?
36:50How long are you willing to wait for a response from Iran?
36:53I thought you just spoke with Iran and you saved the eight young, beautiful girls.
36:57Like, do we see some of just, that wasn't exactly the logic games that I
37:03needed to ace the LSATs.
37:06Okay. But, but here's what he says here, play this clip.
37:10On the war with Iran, how long are you willing to wait until you get
37:14a unified response? Don't rush me, Jeff.
37:18You know, guys like you, you want to say, oh, so we were in Vietnam
37:21like for 18 years. We were in Iraq for many, many years.
37:25We were in for all the, I don't like to say World War Two, because
37:28that was a biggie, but we were four and a half, almost five years in
37:32World War Two. We were in the Korean War for seven years.
37:36I've been doing this for six weeks and we're, their military is totally defeated.
37:42They're, they're, uh, outside of the little wise guy ships.
37:47I call them the wise guy ships, the little boats that they have running around
37:51with guns in them. Uh, we'll take them out too when we see them.
37:56But. Got it. Don't rush me.
38:01But I spoke to them.
38:02I saved the eight girls.
38:04These little ships, these little ships, the wise guys, I call them.
38:09The wise guy ships, I call them.
38:10And World War II was a biggie.
38:12That was a biggie. A biggie?
38:16A biggie? What the hell is going on here?
38:22How does anybody report on this and not respond like this?
38:27For real? How do you look at that and go, oh, this is an Oval
38:33Office press conference and Donald Trump's and no biggie.
38:37A biggie. A biggie. And he talked about pooping in the Oval Office.
38:42Then he talked about saving the lives of eight girls.
38:45Yeah. Normal stuff. Normal stuff.
38:47All right. My producer saying, we've got to take our first break of the show.
38:51I know. We were having a good conversation though, Jeremy, with everybody in the chat.
38:55I'm seeing everybody's messages. We had a big crowd today.
38:5715 ,000 people watching. It's a great convo.
39:0116 ,000 right now. All right.
39:02Make sure you all hit subscribe.
39:04You may think you're subscribed, but you may not actually be subscribed.
39:06Double check. Also, if you can, make sure you subscribe to Midas Touch on audio
39:12also. All right. Let's take our first and only quick break of the show.
39:16We'll be right back. All right.
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43:17Welcome back to Ben on Breaking News.
43:20I'm Ben Micellis, and this is your Breaking News Showing you what was going on
43:25in... the White House moments ago, Donald Trump, the feed cut off, talked about having
43:31to run to the bathroom.
43:33And then he talked about saving young, beautiful women in Iran.
43:36They're very young and very beautiful, which never happened.
43:40Then he called World War II a biggie and that as long as this doesn't
43:44last longer than Vietnam, he's okay.
43:47And you'll notice as he goes through this press conference, he keeps on changing the
43:54duration of the war. And so we've basically been in this war for like two
44:00months now, about eight weeks, maybe seven or so.
44:02And so he just can never say a true number.
44:07So here he is when a reporter says, so how long are you willing to
44:10wait for, sorry, the next one goes, Trump says, we've been doing it for 5
44:15.5 weeks. And the reporter fortunately is like, sir, it's been eight weeks.
44:20Why are you saying 5 .5 weeks?
44:23Like why, why is every word a lie?
44:25Why is every word a lie?
44:26I mean, you could say, look, it's eight weeks and it could have, you know,
44:30when we're going to try to end by 12 weeks, but now we're, now we're
44:33two months in. Here, play this clip.
44:36We have no pressure. It's only guys like you with a question like that about
44:39what's your time. We've been doing it for five and a half weeks.
44:43But sir, it's been eight weeks that the U .S.
44:47now has been involved with Iran.
44:48You had initially said it would be four to six weeks.
44:50Well, I hope that, but I also took a little break.
44:53I gave them a break and I took a break.
44:57I took a break. So we don't count the war right now, even though the
45:01Strait of Hormuz is closed.
45:02That's how he gets his, I took a break.
45:04I took a break. I mean, I mean, what a wild, yeah, he counts the
45:12ceasefire as we're not at war and I took a break all of a sudden.
45:16Okay. The Strait of Hormuz is closed, everybody.
45:19There ain't no, ain't no commerce going through the Persian Gulf right now.
45:24That's a big problem. That's a big problem internationally.
45:29And I mean, you have a naval blockade in Iran, which isn't all that effective.
45:35They have full control of the Strait of Hormuz.
45:38So what are you going to do?
45:40We learned that at least 34 tankers with links to Iran have bypassed the U
45:44.S. blockade. Financial Times confirming this, both with ship tracking data as well as independent
45:52sources, because you want to know here, for those watching here, here's how Iran does
45:58it. This is how they easily defeat the U .S.
46:00blockade. For those on audio, I'm showing people the path that Iran takes.
46:05And it basically takes its ships right through the coast of Iran.
46:11And then they stay in the territorial waters of Pakistan and India.
46:16And then they come right out because the U .S.
46:18naval blockade is not allowed in the territorial waters of Pakistan and India.
46:22So if you want to break the blockade, you just basically kind of hug the
46:27coastline as much as you can as a tanker.
46:31You know, if you see CENTCOM in the U .S.
46:35military bragging about interdicting ships, it's kind of more, it's not in this area.
46:41They're interdicting Iranian ghost ship cargo ships in the Indo -Pacific.
46:46And they, you know, they create these videos of our soldiers boarding these like cargo
46:52ships, like pirates, and searching them.
46:55And that's like the big accomplishment of our Navy.
47:00Yay, we stopped a defenseless cargo ship.
47:04You know, and that's why they're mocking us in Iran.
47:06I mean, they're just like America's ongoing piracy in international waters.
47:11The U .S. Department of War announced the inspection and seizure of another tanker claiming
47:17it was carrying Iranian oil.
47:20The company that tracks oil cargo shipments, tanker trackers, has also claimed that this tanker
47:25is the same vessel Phoenix that has been assisting Iran in exporting 20 million barrels
47:30of oil since 2023. And so that's what the U .S.
47:35Navy is doing right now.
47:38And then Donald Trump goes, if we left Iran right now, things would be tremendous
47:43success. Like if we left right now, if we did nothing, this is, we've already
47:48achieved victory. So now I'm just hanging out there because I like it.
47:52I like to be there basically.
47:54So we won. And if we left, we would won, but I still want to
48:00be there just because I like it.
48:02I like being there. It's nice.
48:04Nice waters. Look, if you're like Ben, did he really say that?
48:07Basically, basically, here's what he says.
48:09Let's play it. I'm a break.
48:10And remember this. I want to make the best deal.
48:15I could make a deal right now.
48:17Do you know that if I left right now, we had a tremendous success.
48:20It would take them 20 years to rebuild, but I don't want to do that.
48:23I want to have it everlasting.
48:25I want to have it where they never get, they never have a chance to
48:28get it. I mean, the way you asked that question, yeah, I did say it.
48:31I thought it would take four to six weeks.
48:34And I was right because at the end of six weeks, at the end of
48:38four weeks, the military was decimated.
48:40But now what I'm doing, I don't, I can't tell you that.
48:43I don't want to put that kind of a timetable on it, but it'll go
48:46pretty quickly. And we'll have the straight opened up.
48:51Now, right now we have a close.
48:53We have. total control of the straight and the fact that it slows you know
48:56they would have opened it up three days ago they came to us and they
49:00said we will agree to open the straight and all my people were happy everybody
49:03was happy except me i said wait a minute if we open the straight that
49:06means they're going to make 500 million dollars a day i don't want them to
49:10make 500 million dollars a day until they settle this thing so i'm the one
49:15that kept it closed we have total control of it and it'll open when they
49:20make a deal or something else happens that's very positive makes a lot of sense
49:26right everybody makes a great deal of sense everybody i mean what in the world
49:31is he even talking about right there i mean by the way if you look
49:33at what else is happening in this godforsaken regime like you thought it was bad
49:38enough when this guy thomas fugate this 22 year old guy who's fresh out of
49:46college who had no experience in national security was named by the trump regime as
49:52the main department of homeland security official tasked with overseeing government extremism he was the
50:00main counterintelligence counterintelligence official uh thomas fugate the third a 22 year old no no
50:07experience but you want to know who like the deputy was now we learned about
50:11the deputy counterintelligence official over at the department of homeland security there she is right
50:16there julia vervaro and she's a notorious sugar daddy person what do you call it
50:25sugar daddy person uh sugar jeremy you were awfully quick with jeremy says you call
50:33it a sugar baby um okay sugar i was gonna go with sugar daddy person
50:38but jeremy tells me it's a sugar baby and how could i do this segment
50:44seriously no but this was the top count the deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism and
50:51she would be on all these like websites uh where she would talk about searching
50:55for a sugar daddy and one of the sugar daddies uh this uh divorcee who
51:01spent forty thousand dollars bankrolling uh her uh she there's all these tech the relationship
51:08went wrong she wanted more money from him again she's 29 years old on these
51:12sugar daddy sites she found the sugar daddy she wanted him to pay her more
51:17money while she's the deputy assistant secretary of counterterrorism and then this guy robert bianchi
51:24is like um he then blows the whistle on his sugar baby this is true
51:34this is really what happened because he believes and rightfully so that this poses a
51:39national security threat and it does because this is compromising as i've said before like
51:44let me be very clear like i said this also with christy gnome's husband on
51:49the bimboification right he was into christy gnome and her husband they judge people right
51:54they attack people they make people suffer but behind closed doors her husband was into
51:59bimboification humiliation so he would dress up as a woman and he would uh fill
52:07his chest with triple e or quadruple whatever it is triple e breasts because that's
52:14what he was into and then he would want women who look that way to
52:18humiliate and shame him uh on video like that's what he was into and as
52:23i said before it's not for me to as long as what you do is
52:29safe and consensual and i'm not going to pry into any family dynamics but i
52:35obviously don't want situations where families are being broken apart and things are being hidden
52:40or concealed but if you do things safe consensual and in private and that's what
52:48you want to do i'm not going to mock any of this but you know
52:51the issue becomes public service the hypocrisy national security and these types of issues right
53:04what i will certainly call out is the behavior of donald trump's department of labor
53:10secretary laurie chavez deremer who was fired this past week as well i mean because
53:17her behavior using our taxpayer dollars it was alleged to go to strip clubs with
53:23other people in the department of labor her husband was accused of sexual misconduct within
53:28the department of labor building such that he was like banned i believe from going
53:33into the department of those released allegations against him and then um all of these
53:39vacations on the taxpayer dime you know none of this should while it should shock
53:44your conscience that this behavior is taking place it also is not shocking that it's
53:51taking place because donald trump is a sexual predator i mean he he's a he's
53:56he's a he's a real vile he's a real vile thing like his whole life
54:01he was so the perversion all of the things that you're seeing that's what goes
54:08on in that guy's head he's a sicko i mean he's like epstein's closest friend
54:12you guys a sicko you know we shouldn't forget they're covering up the epstein files
54:15right i'll talk about that in a moment but this guy's a sicko you know
54:20and i'll talk about that in a moment but this guy's a sicko you know
54:20and i'll talk about that but this guy's a sicko you know and i'll talk
54:20about that but this guy's a pretty good story so i'll talk about that Dr.
54:21and he wants to, you know, he's, he's, this, this, this is, this is what
54:27he attracts. And again, I'm not going to judge what you do in your private.
54:30I'm not shaming the underlying conduct.
54:33Again, if it's safe, if it's consensual, I don't, what do they call it?
54:37Like king shame. I'm not going to shame your things, whatever you, whatever you do.
54:41I really want to be, I think it's important.
54:43I don't matter. You ever, everyone is into thing that's not, the government shouldn't be
54:48prodding into this, you know, no one should be, you know, but when you become
54:55a public servant and you've now compromised the safety of my daughter, of my community,
55:01of my state, of my country, of the Midas mighty, of our friends and family
55:08and all the people, you know, when that now is compromised with this mess right
55:12now. Yeah. You better believe I'm living and you better believe we should call it
55:17out right now. What the hell is going on here now?
55:20Just pivoting for a moment to Epstein.
55:23You know, the updates, right?
55:25Donald Trump is working with James Comer to get Ghislaine Maxwell, a pardon.
55:32I know we knew that was coming, but it's very, very much coming.
55:36James Comer admits it. Politico writes, Politico writes, go back to that one again.
55:45Oversight chair, James Comer told me members of his panel are open to a pardon
55:50for Ghislaine Maxwell so that she would share info with Congress.
55:55Do we have the specific quote from the Politico article?
55:58I think I highlighted it.
55:59I'm not sure if I gave you.
56:01Yeah, here it is. When asked whether he believed it was a favorable deal to
56:06issue a pardon in return for Maxwell's testimony, Comer said, a lot of people do.
56:12My committees split on that.
56:14He added, declining to name the people on his panel who support granting a pardon.
56:20I don't speak for my committee.
56:22You literally do speak for your committee.
56:24You're the chair of the committee.
56:25Your job is actually to speak on behalf of the committee.
56:29Like you're the chair of the oversight committee.
56:32Your job is you speak for the committee.
56:34Okay. And you went on the record and you said that there are, seems to
56:41be lots of members who believe Ghislaine Maxwell, a child sex trafficker should get a
56:46pardon. Right. And now we also learned that the Republicans want to shut down all
56:54further hearings on Epstein and all further subpoenas and depositions.
57:00And instead they want to turn everything into so -called round tables.
57:04They want to go from hearings, under oath, deposition, subpoenas to round tables.
57:12And the round tables would be not under oath and they would be basically just
57:19complete charades. Or as my younger brother, Jordy says, charades.
57:25And it would just be total BS.
57:27That's what they want to turn it into.
57:30Jeremy, I'm not sure if I gave you the assets though here, but if I
57:34did, do we have any of the Lutnik clips of Lutnik being cross -examined on
57:41Epstein and what Lutnik's response was?
57:44Yeah. Let's just play one of them for everybody.
57:46Let's play it. If President Trump has even a shred of concern about accountability for
57:52Jeffrey Epstein's enablers, he would fire you too.
57:57Beyond ADFIN, what other financial ties do you have to Jeffrey Epstein?
58:05As I said, I'm going to answer all these.
58:07Beyond ADFIN, what other financial ties?
58:11You're the Commerce Secretary. We have a right to ask this question and get it
58:14answered. Again, I'm not going to spend the budget day discussing something I've set aside
58:20time to spend on this topic.
58:23I'm going to switch topics.
58:25Let me switch topics. Let's go cut to our Washington, D .C.
58:30Bureau Chief, Scott McFarlane, with an update on this all.
58:33Let's bring in Scott McFarlane, Jeremy.
58:36Let me tell you, this is going to be one of those days, one of
58:39those days in which we hear a lot about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and
58:43the political crisis the Epstein files are causing for the Trump administration.
58:49The latest reports that Ghislaine Maxwell is trying to angle for a pardon or perhaps
58:53getting closer to securing a pardon and again trying to get a court to vacate
58:57her conviction and sentence for sex trafficking have raised the hackles again and raised the
59:03profile of this Epstein files crisis for the Trump administration.
59:07Raja Krishnamoorthy has asked the Department of Justice to hand over any records that they
59:11may have gotten from Ghislaine Maxwell or from her attorney in which they're discussing a
59:16pardon. I heard that Ghislaine Maxwell's attorney is now saying that she's going to be
59:21pardoned. Are you kidding me?
59:22That is absolutely insane. I've already introduced a resolution saying that she should never be
59:29given any form of clemency or leniency given that she perpetrated this ghastly sex trafficking
59:35ring with thousands of girls.
59:37She never admitted to it.
59:40She hasn't served any time showing no remorse.
59:42Absolutely no, no, no to any kind of pardon for her.
59:46And by the way, what the heck is the deal?
59:48doing with regard to this particular investigation?
59:52They've had two arrests. They still have not produced all the Epstein files.
59:563 .5 million pages are missing from the production.
1:00:01And they're now talking about pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell.
1:00:05This is crazy. And there was this report late on Wednesday that the House Oversight
1:00:12Committee was considering some clemency for Maxwell to get her to testify.
1:00:16It's been pushed back on by Republicans.
1:00:18I talked about it on CNN with Jake Tapper and explained why that thing is
1:00:22just a non -starter. Oh boy.
1:00:24Try to find a Democrat to vote for that thing.
1:00:26It's like playing the Powerball.
1:00:27You could win, but you're not going to.
1:00:29You could find a Democrat to support giving her clemency.
1:00:32You will not. So let's start there.
1:00:34This thing is politically cancerous to all who touch it.
1:00:37I can't imagine they're going to find a critical mass to support that toxic idea.
1:00:41But again, they don't need that if it comes down to whether or not President
1:00:44Trump is part of it.
1:00:45And maybe he's crazy. Maybe President Trump is thinking about doing it and this is
1:00:50providing cover for him in some way.
1:00:52Like, oh, look, members of the House Oversight Committee want it.
1:00:54Although we should note, Chairman Comer did not say that he wants it one way
1:00:58or the other. But there are other issues, too.
1:01:00Pam Bondi was to show last week for a deposition under subpoena and did not.
1:01:06Members of Congress do not like being circumvented when they issue a subpoena.
1:01:11And Robert Garcia of California has said he believes both parties will support an effort
1:01:16to either get this thing back on the calendar to find a contempt fighting against
1:01:21Pam Bondi. I expect to hear more about that.
1:01:24Well, we'll be reporting on that soon as well.
1:01:27I want to thank Scott McFarlane.
1:01:30Great report. And just everybody throw up blue hearts if you are all subscribed to
1:01:34Scott McFarlane's YouTube channel. It's at Scott McFarlane News.
1:01:39Make sure you all subscribe there.
1:01:41I see 14, 15 ,000 people who are watching this concurrently live.
1:01:44So make sure you all subscribe to Scott's channel as well and get his updates
1:01:49throughout the day as the Midas Touch Network continues to expand.
1:01:53As you know, I do a live show with Brett and Jordy at 5 Pacific,
1:01:598 Eastern today. Look forward to seeing everybody who's here.
1:02:03Join me and my brothers this evening for more breaking news.
1:02:08Oh, we released a new video on the Midas Touch YouTube channel.
1:02:11A lot of work today.
1:02:13So as soon as this ends, go jump in and watch the latest video as
1:02:17well. So watch the latest video on the Midas Touch feed.
1:02:20As soon as this ends, just go and click to the main feed and watch
1:02:23the one that we just dropped during the show.
1:02:25And then go check out Scott McFarlane's YouTube channel.
1:02:27Thanks, everybody. I'll see you tonight with my brothers, 8 Eastern, 5 Pacific.
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