MeidasTouch Makes Major Announcement!
3/23/202625 mincomplete
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2:49Welcome to this special edition of the Midas Touch podcast.
2:54We are excited to make a major announcement here live with everybody as the Midas
3:02Touch network continues to expand, continues to grow, continues to support the development of lots
3:11of people who are moving into this space of YouTube, new media.
3:17The way news is consumed in 2026.
3:21It is with a great honor to introduce the newest addition to the Midas Touch
3:27network and also someone who the Midas Touch network will be working with and partnering
3:33with to build a media network, YouTube channel, sub stack, and everything that comes along
3:41with it. Everybody welcome Scott McFarlane.
3:44Scott McFarlane, you all know him, a legendary reporter, now the Midas Touch network's chief
3:50Washington correspondent. And in addition to being the Midas Touch network's chief Washington correspondent, Scott
4:00McFarlane will also be launching his platform, Scott McFarlane Reports.
4:06You can subscribe to Scott McFarlane reports on his YouTube channel at Scott McFarlane News.
4:14And then also a sub stack where you can search for Scott McFarlane and subscribe
4:20to his sub stack as well.
4:23Let's bring on Scott McFarlane to talk about this incredible announcement and to also talk
4:30about the types of things we'll be doing together.
4:33And then let's talk about building Scott's platform.
4:37And then let's get into some of the news with this war in Iran, Donald
4:42Trump here on the homeland, attacking Robert Mueller posthumously.
4:48Then you have Treasury Secretary Scott Besant saying, look, it was Mueller who raided Mar
4:55-a -Lago. And then also just that reckless, reckless, malicious appearance by Scott Besant, the
5:01disinformation flooding the zone with this Trump regime.
5:05And frankly, why growing platforms like this?
5:09Why are you joining the Midas Touch network?
5:11Why are you joining the Midas Touch network?
5:11and why you launching your own platform as well is so important.
5:16So, Scott, let me hand it over to you to just to talk about this
5:19announcement. Hey, Ben, it's never been more important to be a reporter than it is
5:25now. Let's just reflect on the significance of this moment.
5:28You have this distinctive, if not historic, moment of political toxicity, political violent threats, a
5:35challenge to the separation of powers, challenges to democracy.
5:38It's never been more important to be an enterprise investigating reporter.
5:43And it's exciting to have this platform.
5:46People who watch, who listen, who I know care about these things, it's in their
5:51DNA. It's in their bones.
5:52They care about the future of this country and the future of democracy.
5:55And we have now this limitless platform and this limitless opportunity, Ben, for unfiltered, unadulterated
6:03reporting, independent reporting, where everybody has some skin in the game.
6:10So talk to us about this kind of dual role.
6:14And this is the kind of way I think the Midas Touch Network is going
6:18to expand. Because on the one hand, you're going to be the chief DC correspondent
6:23for the Midas Touch Network, which I think is going to play a vital role
6:27to our nearly 7 million subscribers on YouTube.
6:31We're one of the biggest substacks out there.
6:34You have incredible sources in Washington, D .C.
6:38and throughout the country. And so bringing that information to our substack, to our YouTube,
6:44to our platform is going to be massive.
6:47But when we use the word our, it also includes a platform that you're going
6:53to be building. And this is where Midas Touch wants to be the fuel to
6:59engines like yours to build your own media platform, to build your own YouTube, to
7:04build your own media company as well, so that you can do this reporting as
7:09well and also build something generationally as well that I know you always wanted to
7:15build. So talk to us about that as well, Scott.
7:18I think the values are pretty clear, and I hope they come across as consistent.
7:22I've been championing this for quite some time.
7:25Not going to platform conspiracy theories, not going to platform lies, and not going to
7:29allow the whitewashing of history.
7:32And that's the ethos in which I'm tackling reporting, have been for some time now.
7:37And I think when we launch the program, the daily program, it's going to be
7:42an informational, newsy program. But going with that value statement of we don't platform lies
7:50and things that are corrosive to our country and corrosive to democracy.
7:53And I'm not an opinionist.
7:55I'm not an editorialist. I'm not somebody who waves pom -poms.
7:58But I am focused on being an enterprise reporter who gets after truth and does
8:04not abide by the whitewashing of history and the erasing of what people have said.
8:11And that truly, truly should command attention right now because we're not just battling to
8:16find news and battling for truth.
8:17We're battling a force that is trying to contaminate and metastasize across all media.
8:24I think that's where we have a similar approach.
8:27And what's more, one of the things that's always appealed to me about Midas Touch
8:30and the network is that it's no wasted time.
8:33There's no empty calories of nonsensical or useless production quirks or bells and whistles or
8:40sound effects or post -production that minimizes the time you can spend otherwise just declaratively
8:46sharing news. Conversational, efficient, straight to the point.
8:50And I think when you have that values and principle foundation, you don't have to
8:57even really worry about the voice and the lens through which you report.
9:01It's factual. It goes where the evidence is.
9:06It's in favor and supportive of democracy and the types of institutions that we once
9:15always valued as Americans that are under attack.
9:18And one of those institutions that you've covered your entire career, and I think you've
9:23been covering this daily beat better than just about everyone.
9:27I know because I rely on your reporting to help inform my reporting is the
9:31Department of Justice and what's been going on in the Washington, D .C.
9:37federal court and the D .C.
9:39circuit, where we see a lot of the biggest cases just because of its proximity
9:44to being in Washington, D .C., but to see in the Justice Department building draped
9:50with a gigantic banner of Donald Trump's face, like we're this authoritarian nation, and then
9:57to see both the authoritarian tactics kind of budding and coming into conflict with our
10:05judicial processes, the federal judges, the circuit courts, but then also the kind of sloppiness
10:12that we see that's intrinsic in this Trump regime as well, where sometimes, or lots
10:19of times, they miss the basic deadlines.
10:21They don't have the lawyers show up.
10:24The judge says submit a declaration.
10:26They don't submit the declaration.
10:28The affidavit that's signed by an ICE officer turns out the ICE officer got a
10:34phone call the night before and said, hey, we need you to sign this.
10:37They show up and they don't know what...
10:39they're even testifying to. And it's that kind of daily stuff, Scott, that with the
10:45war in Iran, with people suffering here on a day -to -day basis on affordability,
10:50it's hard to keep track and know where to focus the lens.
10:53But it is critical that we focus what's happening kind of in the nexus of
10:57all of this in D .C.
10:59Talk to us about that, Scott.
11:01Well, it's easy to look back at history and see Democrats criticize a Republican attorney
11:06general or Republicans criticize a Democrat attorney general.
11:09And that's not terribly interesting.
11:11But this is objectively different.
11:13I think you can stand back, no matter where you are in the political spectrum,
11:17see the differences. I mean, the Democrats are right when they criticize the administration for
11:23hanging that banner because the administration is taking scrutiny and taking grief for their handling
11:29of the Epstein case files, for what they haven't released, for what they've redacted.
11:33And part of that is fueled by the fact the president's face is on the
11:38building. They've made this problem for themselves.
11:41There's also objective criticism, no matter where you are in the political spectrum, by the
11:46purge inside the Department of Justice.
11:47They have lost a lot of talented people who have pieced out of there saying,
11:51this is not for me.
11:52This new politicized Department of Justice is not for me.
11:55I'm going to quit. More than there are the many who've been fired because they
11:59were part of the Trump cases or part of the January 6th prosecutions and they
12:03were let go. And you can objectively watch, Ben, as there are typos, misspellings, and
12:09issues in the court filings by perhaps an overstretched and under -resourced office here and
12:15there. We know, for example, in D .C.
12:16and Minneapolis, they had lost so many people.
12:20There were some staffing complaints or staffing issues.
12:22That is an objective problem for the department, no matter how you look at it.
12:27Then you also, you mentioned the January 6th cases, people who were convicted of seditious
12:35conspiracy. You were in the courtroom for all of those Proud Boy and Oath Keeper
12:41cases and January 6th cases.
12:43And I remember you reported because, as I said, I didn't have somebody in the
12:47courtrooms. Now we do at the Midas Touch Network, it's you.
12:51And it's a great thing that we have you because you were kind of my
12:55lifeline during a lot of it into what was happening there, what the judges were
13:00saying. And look, while there were some Trump -appointed judges on some nuanced legal issues
13:07that may have made decisions that perhaps upset the DOJ and prosecutors and others who
13:14said, I disagree with that interpretation.
13:17Overall, whether you were a Trump -appointed judge, based on my memory of all of
13:22these cases, a Biden -appointed judge, an Obama, a Bush, a Reagan, whoever, these judges
13:28took these cases very seriously.
13:31Thousands of them came before them that the judges oversaw.
13:34Lots of these cases went to juries.
13:37I mean, there was an occasional bench trial.
13:39We're on a specific issue.
13:41Maybe a defendant, you know, want a specific, but overwhelmingly these cases brought in front
13:47of judges and jury conviction after conviction.
13:50Then the Proud Boy Oath Keeper seditious conspiracy cases where you had these judges on
13:56a bipartisan basis calling out the horrific conduct that they observed during these trials.
14:03So then to see Donald Trump's mass pardons of everybody, and frankly, the pardon with
14:09such a broad brush, and I saw your reporting on this, it even covered potentially
14:14conduct that wasn't even on January 6th itself based on the language.
14:19And then this weekend, Scott, we see Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio hanging out at
14:26Mar -a -Lago, partying it up in Mar -a -Lago after his pardon as well.
14:32There are the photos of him this weekend.
14:33So you covered this so extensively.
14:37I just wonder your take right now, because that right there has secondary and third
14:44and fourth level implications about law and order generally when people can get off for
14:50doing what they did. Common misconception about January 6th is that it is a piece
14:54of history. It was, but it's also a current kinetic evolving story.
14:59It is still relevant because not only did you have this mass issue of clemency,
15:03all these pardons, and all these people released from prison, including those who beat and
15:09maimed police officers, but you have this undercurrent of people who are unapologetic, if not
15:16celebratory, of the violence that occurred that day.
15:19And this whitewashing of history is an absolute cancer on American democracy.
15:24So this is a current threat without accountability.
15:27The victims still feel victimized.
15:29A lot of victims were re -traumatized by the pardons.
15:32And I'll tell you from being in the courtroom every day, Ben, you could see
15:35the unapologetic people even there at sentencing when it was worth their self -interest to
15:40try to express some remorse and still wouldn't.
15:44How about the seditious conspiracy defendant who raised a fist and yelled, Trump won, as
15:49he was walking out of the courtroom after sentencing.
15:53This new pattern of January 6th pardoned rioters and defendants being out there, being celebrities,
16:00being politically active, trying to get close to Trump, none of that's surprising.
16:05And that's why I'm so grateful for anybody who takes point of time.
16:07And that's why I think it's a very powerful thing that I believe that he
16:07is on a very strong side.
16:07And that's why I'm so grateful for anyone who's been able to get to this.
16:07And that's why I think that it's a very powerful thing that I think that
16:07I'm moment to subscribe to my pages and my platforms because I'm going to be
16:11in the courtrooms moving forward for all these critical legal challenges about the threat to
16:15democracy. People who are suing to try to counteract some of these executive orders and
16:20policies. Being in the courtroom tells you a lot then because as you know better
16:23than anybody, there are no cameras in these courts.
16:26There's no audio feeds in most of these courts.
16:28The only way to get the actual nuggets of news as they happen is from
16:32the reporters who are in there.
16:34And we are now positioned to be in all the courtrooms as often as we
16:37need to be or in my case also banging around Capitol Hill looking for news
16:41that otherwise can't service. Just a reminder everybody subscribe to Scott McFarlane's sub stack right
16:48now. Also subscribe to his YouTube.
16:51It's at Scott McFarlane News.
16:53That's what you search on YouTube at Scott McFarlane News.
16:58I got to ask you before we go just your reaction to Donald Trump's post
17:05about the death of Robert Mueller, former FBI director, also decorated veteran, somebody who selflessly
17:15made the biggest sacrifices for our country.
17:20And Donald Trump's post is Robert Mueller just died.
17:24Good. I'm glad he's dead.
17:26He can no longer hurt innocent people.
17:28President Donald J. Trump and then throughout the day where Donald Trump was giving 48
17:34hour ultimatums that we would commit, let's just call it what it is, a war
17:38crime, civilian infrastructure being a target in a war, my view constitutes a worker.
17:45He's just posting saying that we're going to do that.
17:48And then he goes out and posts photos of himself from like, I don't know
17:52if these are from the eighties or nineties when he was close friends with Epstein.
17:56He posts these photos in the early days of Mar -a -Lago.
18:01You know, there are lots of people, Scott, who say Trump makes crazy posts.
18:06And if you chase the crazy posts all the time, you won't be, you'll be
18:11missing things. And that's what he wants you to do.
18:14Now, my view is you can walk and chew gum at the same time.
18:17Every post doesn't require you to be like, oh my God, Donald Trump made a
18:22post about himself in front of Mar -a -Lago or Donald Trump posted a video
18:27of himself dumping feces on protesters.
18:30You know, like he did during one of the No Kings protests.
18:34But I think that there's a connective tissue here.
18:36While there are deeply serious issues confronting the American people, while people are suffering and
18:42struggling and can't afford things, and now they can't afford gas.
18:46And they're wondering, am I going to be able to pay rent the next month?
18:51I don't know. What the hell is happening?
18:53Family members who have members of their family in the military, not clear what's this
18:59mission? What's even going on?
19:01What are we doing there?
19:03The American people wondering the same, covering up of the Epstein files.
19:08This type of behavior, to me, it's why I kind of got involved in this,
19:14not from a political level, but from a, we need to grow up.
19:18We need to act like adults and restore decency and compassion and empathy.
19:23And that ain't it. So before we go, Scott, I just want you to address
19:26that and perhaps even the style with which you're going to bring to kind of
19:31your reporting as people subscribe to your platform and see you here.
19:34I'm so glad you asked that.
19:36I think this gets to the fundamental nature of what we're about to do here,
19:39Ben. First of all, before I explain, can you go back to the picture?
19:42Because I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna give you one opinion.
19:44The picture of Donald Trump in the 80s, is that not Don Johnson's coat from
19:51Miami Vice? I think I just caught that because we need to, we need to
19:54celebrate that coat, making a new appearance since the 1980s drama days.
19:59We'll put that aside. Here's the thing.
20:01You come to my platform, subscribe and follow me.
20:03Here's what you're going to get when moments like that happen.
20:06If there's a billion opinions out there, I'm going to get you some reporting on
20:09it. Here's what I could tell you over the past 24 hours.
20:12This is a political problem for Republicans and you're going to have a case where
20:15senators, Republicans who are on Capitol Hill this week are going to be asked about
20:21the Truth Social Post and they're going to have to try to answer for it.
20:24That's not the message they want to be on.
20:26It happened Sunday where the Senate Republican leader was asked about it and didn't give
20:30a very declarative, unequivocal answer.
20:33We've talked about, Ben, maybe bringing a hard copy of the Truth Social Post around
20:36to ask Republican House members and senators if they've seen this or to look at
20:40it and respond to it.
20:41That gets them off message.
20:42They're trying to drive this SAVE Act message this week.
20:45They're trying to talk about transgender sports this week, even though it's not necessarily timely.
20:50So objectively, as a reporter, I can tell you over the past 24 hours, it's
20:53been a political liability. Then on Meet the Press on Sunday, the Treasury Secretary was
20:58asked about that post, not what he wanted to be talking about.
21:01And his answer was quite something and caught the attention of a lot of people
21:04in Washington. The Treasury Secretary, Ben, said that you have to put yourself in Donald
21:09Trump's mind. He experienced some bad things watching Mar -a -Lago get raided.
21:12It was very impactful on him without acknowledging that it wasn't Robert Mueller's team that
21:17raided Mar -a -Lago. It was Jack Smith's.
21:19And even so, he was asked, does that even matter?
21:21And he went back to the initial answer.
21:23So you're off message at this seminal moment when the DHS is still shut down,
21:28when the TSA lines are too long, when the gas prices are too high, when
21:31people are too fed up and elections are getting too close for some.
21:35They're off message. So you follow, you subscribe, you're going to get the latest reporting
21:39in the hallways around Washington about what these things mean, what are the facts on
21:44the ground, and then you can launch into your own probably unambiguous opinions.
21:50Well, very big news here today on the Midas Touch Network.
21:53It is an honor to have Scott McFarlane join the Midas Touch Network as our
21:59chief Washington correspondent. And at the Midas Touch Network, we're going to do everything we
22:05can do as well to help you grow your own platform, independent, but intertwined with
22:12the great work that we're doing here and the great work that you're doing over
22:16there at McFarlane Reports. I want to thank you and everybody for being here, for
22:25watching this. Reminder, Scott McFarlane's YouTube channel.
22:29Make sure you all subscribe now.
22:31Wouldn't that be incredible if we can get that YouTube channel 100 ,000 subscribers in
22:37the very first day right here?
22:39It's already at 20 ,000 subscribers.
22:42And Scott will be doing a regular cadence there as well.
22:46So when you check in, you'll get your daily Scott McFarlane videos on YouTube.
22:51Also make sure you subscribe to his sub stack by searching Scott McFarlane on the
22:58sub stack. We have a lot of other stuff we obviously want to talk about
23:02and will be talking about, but that's why I keep checking back on the Midas
23:05Touch YouTube channel and keep checking back on the Scott McFarlane's YouTube channel.
23:12Although I have to say, Scott, the person who's probably the most happy about us
23:17bringing you on is my wife and my family, because not only are they big
23:22fans of yours, but they're thinking maybe Scott can, you know, fill in for a
23:27Ben video here or there in the morning and maybe get this guy to sleep
23:30before 10 p .m. So we'll see about that.
23:33I'm throwing out that challenge, Scott.
23:35But most importantly, we've always admired your work.
23:38We're grateful for you and what an honor to build this out with you.
23:42I can't think of anybody else we'd love to do that with right now and
23:46to have joined the already incredible team we have.
23:49Shout out to all of our other great hosts.
23:51We have so many incredible people here, whether it's the Legal AF YouTube channel, whether
23:56it's Katie Fang, who was absolute.
23:58When I told Katie that you were joining, Scott, Katie's face lit up and she
24:03said she's excited to do videos with you, the whole team, the editorial team's excited.
24:09And so everybody here is grateful, Scott.
24:11So anything else you want to say before we go?
24:13This is an honor. And let me say there's a non -zero possibility that when
24:17I do fill in for you, I'm wearing the Don Johnson coat and nobody, nobody's
24:22going to be able to stop that.
24:23So just embrace that reality.
24:25It's better than my button down shirt.
24:30We'll test it out. We'll pull it.
24:32Scott McFarlane, everybody. The new Midas Touch Network, Chief Washington Correspondent.
24:36Thanks everybody for watching this live.
24:38We'll see you next time.
24:39Remember right now, subscribe to Scott McFarlane News at Scott McFarlane News on YouTube.
24:45We will see you next time on the Midas Touch Network.
24:48Shout out to the Midas Mighty.
24:50Want to stay plugged in?
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25:03We'll see you next time on the Midas Touch Network.
25:05time on the Midas Touch Network.
25:05Bye.